The past couple days, I’ve written on experiences at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It’s not an easy place to visit, but I wouldn’t take a trip to Israel without spending time there. I may not want to look, listen, or touch the experiences, but the Holocaust happened. People lived it. I need to know. The least I can do is respect people’s lives and honor their memories.

I read a letter by Abramek Krzepicki: “Tomorrow we will be heading toward the Great Unknown in full awareness and at peace. If we are meant to live, all the better; and if not…” I stood beside a railway car and read about how the last car of trains was often left empty. People would die along the way, so the last car could be filled with bodies.

The letter contained hope despite the threat of death.

The train snuffed out hope with expected death.

People faced the unknown with different perspectives. We do the same. We have hope in life. Our hope often focuses on (what we determine as) positive outcomes. Our hope is in the things we want most. When life involves something else, do we lose hope?

We don’t have to lose hope in life or death, because death can include life. Death is part of life. It’s inevitable. Life conquers death.

Where is your hope? With whom do you trust your life? How does it impact your death? How is it impacting your life, today?

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)