No Sparrow Unnoticed

I was in Budapest two weeks ago. Travel generally transports one into the drama and glories of ages past, but I had a moving spiritual experience that only God could’ve orchestrated. On the blue Danube River that separates “Buda” from “Pest” – two cities, now one – there is a memorial to the Jews who died in the very last days of World War II.

It is called, Shoes On The Danube Bank.

 

 

 

In July 1944, Raoul Wallenberg, of Schindler’s List fame, came to Budapest as Secretary of the Swedish Foreign Ministry with a plan to save as many Jews as possible. He created thousands of Swedish identity documents for the Jews, protecting them from Nazi deportation. He is credited with ultimately saving as many as 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, the Nazi Party had handed over their power to Hungarian fascists known as the Arrow Cross party. Hungary had initially sided with Germany. On the night of January 8, 1945, Arrow Cross militia marched thousands of Jews to the Danube in Budapest to be shot. The shoes—left behind—brought reality to the human genocide. Though it took place 70 years ago—the terror felt palpable. The shoes, now bronze replicas, are a permanent memorial. Our guides said 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the last five months of the war. The Soviet Red Army would liberate the city only a few weeks after the Danube slaughter.

At the memorial, I closed my eyes. Intense compassion stirred me down to my toes. Even now as I write this, my eyes are filling with tears.

Where were you God?

To my surprise, a scene unfolded on the screen of my mind: I saw the mass of Jewish people, young and old, male and female, trudging toward the river. Fascist solders flanked them on each side. The people had to know what was about to happen.

But so did God.

Angels vastly outnumbered the soldiers on each side and followed along with the death march. As the people neared the river’s edge, angels passed through the militia as if the soldiers were ghosts. One by one, angels took the arms of each man, woman, and child about to be executed. As the Jews were shot and cast into the river, the angels went under with them, but it was only a matter of seconds before the angels rose up with each person’s spirit. Then I heard the Lord say, “Let My people go!”

I caught my breath. Sometimes when I close my eyes and lift my heart to God, He shows me a glimpse of what He sees. The unseen is greater than the seen. One might easily dismiss such a thing as a daydream, or wishful thinking. But God will speak—now one way, now another—because man may not perceive it (Job 33:14). He would say the same thing in other ways to support what I saw in the vision, and that helps me separate my own thoughts from God’s. Confirmation came in several ways over the next few days.

Later, we came to a metal statue of a soldier with a flag, who is being honored with a laurel wreath by Victory – a winged female figure. (Click link for a better look). I don’t know if you can tell from my photo, but the angel is holding the wreath over the war weary soldier and helping him hold up a tattered flag. The nearness of the angel and her compassionate look at the man is touching. So often we think we’re alone in our struggles.

A few days later we toured the Fine Arts Museum in Vienna. I came upon painting after painting of martyrdom scenes—a terrible moment from an earthly point of view. But angels were present and waiting. One painting showed an angel holding a heavenly crown, ready to bestow on the martyr’s head.

And though I was surprised, I shouldn’t have been.  You don’t have to look far to find this theme in great world paintings. The martyrdom of Stephen and later St. Catherine, for example…

 

And Scripture undergirds everything God says in a fresh way.

Near the end of our trip, we came to Passau Germany. In this relatively small city, St. Stephen’s cathedral features a memorial of the stoning of Stephen. Acts 7 says this:

55 “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ …59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.”

God used a vision, a statue, many paintings, and most importantly Scripture to convey the reality of His presence, especially for people in tragic and unjust situations. He sees every persecution, trial, suffering, captivity or martyrdom in advance. No sparrow falls unnoticed. God is there.

He is closer than our skin.