Yesterday, the rocks beneath my feet spoke of a yesteryear, one of pain, of torture, and of an unbearable torment unimaginable.  As we walked among the path of the Dachau Concentration Camp, continually we were reminded of the past, of those souls who lost their lives because of hate.

As soon as we walked the path, there we found the railroad rails, yes, those that brought so many souls to this place.  And it was there, then, that my heart began to ache as my being cried for the lives lost, for the ones who lost what seems to be everything.

“They lost their lives because of who they were, because of their faith.”  I spoke those words as we stood before the gate, the one famous with the words written in German, the one we remember so well…Work Makes One Free. Yes, before we even stepped through the gate, into the camp, first we had to stand where they once stood, where they once paused to wonder, “What now God?” What would become of their homes left behind, of their families separated, and of them individually?

Emotion overtook me.

My heart grieved for lost lives.

How many died before they believed?

How many died before they could see?

How many?

How many suddenly believed in those final days because they could now see what they could never see when they once lived in freedom?

How many believed because they now lived in captivity, because they now knew what Jesus meant when He spoke, assuring us…”I have come that men might know Me and be free.”

How many died, but only after they first believed?

Dachau Concentration Camp (1933-1945)…..Twelve years.

A place of fear, of unbearable pain, of torment, of death. Also a place of faith, of belief, and of life.  We will never know for sure (until we go home to be with our LORD) just how many came to know Jesus in their final days of life; yet, as I stood (yesterday) in the middle of that massive compound, so large in size, a place constructed for thousands, where they stood, shoulder to shoulder, man to man and woman to woman…There I looked down, and there, among all the large rocks, I saw the small heart-shaped rock, literally among the thousands of other rocks, maybe tens of thousands of rocks.

Shaped like a heart.  God’s love exists EVERYWHERE.

Reminding me that (even there), in this place, still God existed and still today, yes, even today, God exists.

Stooping, I picked up the rock, wrapped my fingers tightly around its coolness laying against my palm, and I began to think of the largeness of God.

Thank You, God, for even here, You exist.

Thank You, God, for even in captivity, You set all men free….All who choose to believe.

Thank You, God.

We often look at those we love and wonder, “How can they not see what we see?”  “How can they not believe?”  But still they remain trapped in their unbelief……to not believe, held within their unbelief, & we mourn.

So many years separate us from the confines of the Holocaust and the torture found within this concentration camp; yet, still we stand there, among the rocks, and we remember what we have read, what we have studied.  We look at the photos of the faces, as we walk the path where they once walked, and we consider how each man and each woman walked alone, stood alone, yet together……shoulder to shoulder…..afraid and also filled with strength only God could provide as they lived their final days of life.

In the Bible, David reminds us in Psalm 62 that God exists even there, among the rocks.

And again…

Thank You, God.

We place our trust in Your strength, in Your salvation, in Your freedom from this place of captivity of our souls.

Rocks take all kinds of shape.

Yesterday, standing there, witnessing the horror that can only be felt within a Holocaust Concentration Camp, I found myself bent, squatted down, and picking up the rock shaped like a heart.

There, Then.. I found myself praising God. Thank You, God, for being there…..Among the Rocks, taking shape…Even There…&…Even Here

Then…&…still, even now.