Love wins

The earth - saturated and wet with the mood, appropriate rain falling from the cold, grey sky. The mud reminds me of red Mexican clay, but this ground is stained with a different kind of blood; a different kind and yet blood all the same.

It's the ground that saw the fates of 200,000 men, women, and children; fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons.

It's the ground that spoke of evil and now whispers of hope, fighting to believe that love really does win.

It's the ground that may forever know suffering as pilgrims leave silk flowers for their loved ones, falling to their knees in the sinking muddy earth from the weight of it all.

It's holy ground.

It's holy not because ti's the earth that Jesus walked on or bears the bush that burned and spoke, but because it is the ground that Christ died for. It tells a story of evil and sin so great that no man can bear it, yet Jesus whispers "You are no better."

It is holy because Christ died for all sin and all people and bore a hope that no man could destroy. A hope that can't be dragged into a gas chamber or buried in a ditch.

It is holy because even in the darkest hour of human history, faith stood tall. Christ, carved into prison cell walls. Men, martyred at the walls between Barracks 10 and 11, falling to their knees one final time. Bibles and communion wafers, smuggled into the gates of hell, reminding all that love wins.

And so it goes, as my feet stand at the door of a young girl's home.
Anneliese Marie Frank.

We share the same middle name and I pray that we share the same spirit.
The spirit of a God who is greater than our greatest enemy.
The spirit of grace for the fallen and forgiveness for the pushers.
The same spirit that never believed evil would win.

A walk through Berlin tells the sale - the tale of a battle fought, lost, and won.
A battle where hope appeared to falter but now stands tall, tall like the pillars that commemorate those who could stand no more, through no fault of their own.

So we remember the fall and we remember the death, and we remember the one who fell and died only to bring hope and life.