The Swastika

Needing to get away, I walked to the river and found a spot to sit on a chewed up cement boulder.  The sun was about to set on a gorgeous Elkhart day. 

I noticed messages carved into the rocks as I seated myself above a fallen tree, surrounded by sunlight and leafy green branches shading me. 

I began to read and write, and I ran into a verse that filled me with awe in the first chapter of Ephesians.  It was a prayer, asking God to open the eyes of the people being prayed for so they could see four things about God our Father: the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance, the might working of His power, His vast strength. 

Hope, riches, power, strength. What a summary of what we crave as humans! 

After journaling and praying and thinking, I looked up, and there in the rock was a swastika, old and mossy. 

Some people say they can’t understand why anyone would follow Adolf Hitler. The same confusion exists around less notorious people and fads and movements. The truth must be that in those moments the followers see hope and the promise of riches, power, and strength. Adolf Hitler’s Germany was crying for something, anything that promised strength, power, riches, hope. 

In fact, the swastika was a symbol of well-being used by Americans until Hitler claimed it. Coca-Cola, fruit packagers, and the Girl Scouts, all used the swastika symbol according to an article called “How the World Loved the Swastika Until Hitler Stole It”. (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591)

And while surely even some of the common people questioned some of Hitler’s ideologies, I believe the “hope of hope” was irresistible.

How sad! How sad to spend your life, or even a few years, pursuing what you think will bring hope, riches, power, and strength, only to find it self-destruct in a bunker!

But this tragic condition is not confined to the Nazis. What a great deal of things people pursue believing that they will bring happiness! 

I am more convinced than I have ever been that the Bible is true, and that the hope, riches, power, and strength promised in Jesus Christ are unmatched anywhere else in the world… Unmatched in university studies, unmatched in gated neighborhoods or rich subdivisions, unmatched in being the most popular person in your world, unmatched in the strongest person you know.

But in the same breath I am more saddened than ever by humanity’s continuous, unceasing pursuit of other things, which are always inferior, always empty. 

And there are so many clever imitations of truth! I’m convinced Hitler would have never gotten off the ground with the people of Germany if he had presented himself for who he chose to be. But he used the swastika, a symbol of well-being, to soften his message. 

The same can be said for any type of sin, any type of untruth, any type of worthless hero. Always, always they seek to be angels of light. Always, the promises appeal to a world starved for hope and truth. 

It may be popular to say that all paths lead to heaven, that truth is relative, that good and evil are figments of the past. But I think that most people question that in moments of lucidity and honesty. And many people are hungry for a strong leader to step out of the pool of passive, complacent relativists. They would rather follow someone with a few wrong opinions than someone with no opinion at all. 

But oh what a beautiful world it is, when we know Christ, the source of hope, riches, power, and strength that never disappoints! Reading the works of Corrie ten Boom, I am reminded that this hope was enough… Even in the worst of the worst… even in the concentration camps of Hitler’s Germany. We need to tell the world, the ten Boom sisters said, that God’s light is brighter than the deepest darkness. 

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”-Corrie ten Boom

God’s love… Deeper than any darkness, it is the true source of hope, riches, power and strength. If it was enough in a concentration camp, it is still enough.