Maybe So, Maybe Not

You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with shouts of deliverance. Psalm 32:7

Anne Frank's Diary.

In our high school German class at Concordia, Milwaukee, we had to translate The Diary of Anne Frank. Back then, as I concentrated on the intricacies and subtleties of the language, much of the emotion of the young lady's book escaped me. It was only much later that I grew to appreciate the deep feelings and thoughts of a young woman who, along with most of her family, died in the Nazi extermination camps of World War II.

In truth, I haven't thought about Anne Frank for years. That changed last week when I read an article carried by CNN.

The story spoke of a newly posted Internet video -- a video that showed the 12-year-old girl.

Curious, I took a look at the black-and-white, silent film. For just a second or two, it showed her leaning out of a window so she might be able to watch the wedding of a couple who lived in her building.

That short bit of movie saddened me.

It touched me because I knew the rest of Anne Frank's tragic story. Looking at the movie play, I knew what was going to happen to her. And I also knew that when this film was shot, there would still have been time for her family to escape the Nazis.

It saddened me I couldn't warn the girl, that I couldn't help her family escape the coming holocaust. For Anne Frank and her family, the time of warning had come and gone.

Of course, it is not too late to tell the millions of unbelievers in this world how they can escape the holocaust awaiting them if they die without faith in Jesus. There is still time to tell them hell's holocaust is far worse than the most terrible of Nazi concentration camps.

There is still time to tell the lost about the Savior who gave His life so they might live. There is still time to speak of the Christ, who alone has paid the price that rescues sinners from the law's condemnation.

But this time to give warning will not last forever.

The time will come for them, as it did for Anne Frank, when it will be too late for us to speak, or for them to believe. This is why we must share the Savior's story today. Today, we must tell others of the Lord's birth, His life, and of His suffering, death, and resurrection.

We must let them know that in Jesus there is salvation and life.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord we are only given so many opportunities to tell others of the salvation Jesus offers. Bless those opportunities. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Pastor Ken Klaus Lutheran Hour Ministries http://www.lhm.org/ all rights reserved; not to be duplicated without permission.