“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more,” (Matthew 2:18).

There is always a moment in a vacation when you feel that the experience transcends sightseeing and reaches the level of real learning.

It happened in Krakow, Poland, a couple of weeks ago. I stood at the Jewish Ghetto Memorial and felt the emotional weight of what happened there, and I could not help myself; I cried.

Each large, metal chair represents a thousand adult victims; each small chair for one thousand children. There were dozens of them. Krakow’s Jewish community was rounded up and herded into the ghetto as a holding place prior to extermination.

Trains came to take the people either to labor camps or extermination centers; both had the same end game. Many, especially children and the elderly, were simply shot where they stood.

Most of us know this story … academically. But standing in that place with our beautiful, vibrant, joyous grandson, I found myself thinking about families like ours. Children watching their mothers murdered and their fathers herded into cattle cars. A grandfather witnessing unspeakable atrocities before being murdered himself. I see those small chairs and the brutal end for so many children, and I begin to cry.

I cry because: A) The older I get the more things seem to touch me; B) too many people talk as if ‘rounding people up’ is a good idea; and C) we are so easily blinded by hate and by misinformation.

Hate does blind. The saying ‘love is blind’ is not true; love typically sees clearly. This is what makes love so powerful; this is what makes love so costly.

But seeing clearly does hurt. The truth is that we are broken and lost and in need of grace. I saw all that in Krakow and a lot more — more than enough for this post. Never forget the tragic and terrible consequences of forgetting Christ’s instruction to love our neighbors as ourselves.

In love, and because — ultimately — it is love that will save us.

— DEREK

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Derek Maul
Derek Maul has written for many news outlets, including the Tampa Tribune, The United Methodist News Service, All Pro Dad, FOCUS Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Presbyterians Today, Guideposts, Chicken Soup for the Soul and many other publications. Read Derek Maul’s daily blog posts at www.derekmaul.wordpress.com.