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On February 13, 1945, the allied bomb raid on Dresden took place. I used the occasion of the memorial evening to make a night-time city tour. I also took a couple of pictures on the go, of which I want to show a selection here (clicking on a picture opens a larger version in new window):

The fate of this city has been moving me for years. For two years now, I have been living in an old house unscathed by the war, and sometimes I just wonder how it must have been like in those other houses when the bombs dropped. I am very glad that the rebuilt Frauenkirche (“Church of the Lady”) has become a symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness between Germany and England, but also America. Personally, I have good friends in both of those countries from where the bomber pilots came. The dome cross, for example, whose twisted predecessor is shown on one of my pictures, was made by an English goldsmith whose father had been involved in the attack on Dresden.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are so essential and find their climax in the death of Jesus at the Cross, which provides us the opportunity of reconciliation with God. Directly after the Lord’s Prayer follows an often overlooked scripture which speaks quite clearly on this subject:

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14–15)

However, this is only possible by the love of God which must live inside of us before we are able to do such a thing. I cannot do this by my own strength; at least not if it is going to have a lasting effect. An extreme event like the destruction of Dresden is much harder to forgive, of course – one must not forget, however, that we Germans started the war and had bombed cities like London and Coventry first. We reaped what we sowed. I am so thankful that Germany is still so blessed by God, despite our great historic guilt and current godlessness.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Faith, Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.