God has called us to live in peace. (1 Cor. 7:15)
IN 1961 A NINETY-SIX-MILE WALL was erected by the communist East German government to prevent residents of East Berlin from moving to West Berlin. The wall split families and friends for twenty-eight years, and East German guards were ordered to shoot anybody who attempted to cross it.
On November 9, 1989, jubilant East and West Berliners began tearing down the Berlin Wall, the symbol of the Iron Curtain that had separated Eastern Europe from the West for decades. Tears of joy ran down the faces of loved ones as they freely embraced family members and friends, now free to move back and forth from East Germany to the West.
Yet we continue to build walls and fences between us today. We fear the unknown. If someone doesn’t think, act, or believe the way we do, we tend not to trust them.
God loves all of us. He created us in His image. His purpose for us as believers is to reach out to those who are not yet members of His family and bring them in, rather than build walls to keep them out.
The wall fell because the will of the people and the spirit of freedom didn’t give up. Liberty, the cry of every human heart, triumphed. People are still crying out for liberty, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. Isn’t that the reason Jesus sacrificed himself for us?
Reach out to someone separated from you by a wall of fear.
Rosemary Hagedorn began writing devotions in her later years. She creates picture story books for her grandchildren and is presently working on a fantasy novel.
