Now that I have introduced you to Katrín from Iceland - I also need to tell you about Kerstin Hack from Germany. Click on this pic if you want to know more about her. Kerstin publishes her thoughts and ideas on several web sites and - if you are able to read German - I can recommend her Kerstin Pur blog which I added to my blog list yesterday.
I stumbled on Kerstin's blog - pun intended - while clicking through the German blogs list from fellow Dutch blogger Marc van der Woude. I just dropped her a line because it turned out that we are both Christians working in the book trade. Check out Kerstin's Berlin Rocks site (in English!) and her Down to Earth site about her publishing activities in Germany.
Talking about stumbling blocks, you might be aware that some Dutch people still hold a grudge against their German neighbours. Our little country was occupied by our big brother from the east during the Second World War. It strikes me that these terrible things from the past still come up whenever I talk to people from Germany.
I don't blame today's Germans for what happened in the past. I hope they don't hold me responsible for what our Dutch forefathers did in South Africa, South America and the Far East... There are so many things to be ashamed of (Apartheid is a Dutch word, remember).
I take the liberty of quoting a passage from Kerstin's message to me:
In the last months there has been a lot of interaction between Berlin and Rotterdam, mostly in the area of bringing peace to the fact that we destroyed Rotterdam a while back and a longing to work together on a new basis. It is very much on my heart that Germany and the Netherlands would learn to walk together in real partnership and do things together....Kerstin is planning to visit Rotterdam next May, for the memorial of the bombing of this Dutch city during the Second World War. I am impressed by this gesture - it is an act of reconciliation in a broken world - filled with people desperately in need of forgiveness.
This statue from Zadkine is a symbol and a reminder of the bombing of Rotterdam in the Second World War. The hands in the sky against the bombs falling down and a hole in the body to show the center was bombed out of the city.
Rotterdam after the bombing...
I never had the opportunity to get to know my grandfather and my uncle (my mother's brother) because both of them died during the Second World War. But you know what? I have always enjoyed working with my reliable German business partners and I love our neighbours from the East with the love of Christ. How can I blame today's Germans for what some of their (grand)parents did?
Kerstin, you already know the stumbling Stone... He is the new basis for co-operation and peace:
The StoneA message of peace for Kerstin and for all visitors of this little spot in the blogosphere:
Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. The Scriptures provide precedent: Look! I'm setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor. Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it.
(1 Peter 2:4-6 from the Message)
Peace and Joy
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.(Romans 5:1-11 from the Message)
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2 comments:
Hi, Paul
thanks for what you wrote about the past, forgiveness and nice German colleagues....
And what you wrote about Gods Grace going beyond everything reminded me of a poem I once wrote about this all. It´s quite long, but you might like it (especially as it has your name in it!)
Blessings to you and whoever else reads this entry.
Kerstin
Paul, the German
How did Paul feel
When he saw
The scarred backs
Of brothers
Visible signs of the wounds
He inflicted on them
In his other life
Or to hear the voice of sisters
Breaking in pain
Whispering
My family too, died at your hands.
Lives destroyed.
Cords broken.
Pain.
Void of life
Never having the chance to be lived
The beat of the drum
Stoppedmid-song
The bridegroom returning to the bride
The flamboyance of life and love
Beaten out of his bones
By violent persecution
In the name of God.
His victims.
Their cries of pain
Tears
Painful memories.
Wherever Paul went
There was someone.
Someone
Who had been hurt
By Paul’s
Violent
Persecution
Of Gods people
I know
What it is like
To go somewhere.
For a holiday
And then the history
Of my nation
My story
Hitting me unexpected like
Lightning
From bright blue skies
With the wet blanket of the pain
We inflicted on so many
In a still harbour in Argentina
Vintage submarines
With the patina of a past time
Picturesque until
I hear they were used
To bring the Gold
Stolen from Millions of murdered Jews
To the shores this land.
Or Meeting John.
Nice Englishman.
Polite and friendly…
Until …
I never had a dad.
The man who returned from
War
Imprisonedin your land
Was broken
Drank
To sink his pain
You destroyed his life
And mine….
Because of you
I never had a dad
I hate your land
Your people
Never had a mum.
Barley survived war
And concentration camps.
Had no home
For a long time no home
Yad Vashem.
Reading the names
Of thriving Communities
Once alive with families
Weddings
Playing children
Now all Jewish life there
Is extinct.
I know the names
Of each of these villages.
It is where I grew up,
Went to school
Had friends.
Living next to
The graveyard
With
Moss-covered graves
And Hebrew inscriptions
As the only witnesses
Of a past life
Silenced by death
My Grandma
Remembered
How she heard
The rumours
That the beds of the Jews
In the next village
Were thrown onto the streets
From the windows of their homes
And they were
“taken” –
No one knew where to
No one wanted to know
My own mum
Was taught to
To hail Hitler
Before she could
Say her own name
All of us
Being part of it…
In acts of silence
Paul,
How did you face it?
The pain?
The Helplessness?
Not being able to undo the horror
Or to bring to life again
The ones you killed.
Being a tentmaker
Unable to mend
The broken strings of life
You tore apart
I am
The worst of all sinners.
I am.
Killed his people.
Jeshua’s family
Persecuting him…
And the ones
He is in covenant
With
His body.
I did it…
In cold blood
Blinded by false ideology
Until he blinded me
On that road…
I still
See their faces
Hear their screams
The torture
And emptiness of
Discontinued life
The deathly silence of songs
Never sung
And hear
Stephen
Praying for me
In the midst of it all
One man chose to die at my hands
For all I did
The cross
Grace undeserved
Undeserved
Undeserved
Now I long
For people to meet me
At that place of forgiveness
Embrace me and say
I no longer hold
What you did against
You….
Just touch my shoulder
And say
I do not judge
Like my friend from America did
In that horrible museum
In Berlin
Where all the murder was displayed
On huge tablets
Black and white
Death - staring at me
From white-washed walls
The place
Where they decided to
Effectively kill all of the Jews
Where we decided in favour of
The final solution…
A friend’s hand, from another land,
Walking with me
Through the pain
Seeing it all
Knowing it all
Feeling it all
Touching me softly
I am with you
And I do not judge…
I know many times
People are not able
To touch
Because
Their pain is too deep
And they do not know
That they too,
Can kill and destroy
Even
If they never did….
Yet,
I long to go there
With brothers and sisters
Long to be touched
By grace.
While I wait
For their forgiving
Glance
Making contact once again
I embrace the cross
And fervently cling to grace
Incomprehensible
Mad
Wonderful
Life-giving
Grace
For the worst of all sinners
Kerstin Hack
Berlin, 25.02.02
Thank you, Kerstin, for your beautiful poem - it is highly appreciated!
Let me give you a little poem in return. I wrote it some time ago in Dutch and hopefuly it still makes sense in English...
The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus--setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this.
(Romans 3:22 The Message)
My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
(1 John 3:18-20 The Message)
ACQUITTAL
Pardoned
Even me
My heart of little faith
Skips a beat
From joy
Who can contradict You
Who will accuse me now?
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