It’s the 68th anniversary of D-Day today. This video is the prayer that President Franklin D. Roosevelt prayed that day. You can read the entire prayer here.
I’ve been thinking a lot about WWII the past few days. As I’m reading the biography on Bonhoeffer, it’s been leading up to the rise of Hitler in Germany and last night I came to the year 1933. This was the year that Hitler came in to power as the chancellor of Germany. Obviously, if you’re an American you have heard about WWII from our perspective, that is, as an Allied force that had to spend the lives of many men and women in order to stop Hitler. But in reading Bonhoeffer my eyes are being opened to what it was like over there during that time. In just the first few months of becoming chancellor Hitler turned a republic in to a dictatorship and then quickly turned the Germans against the Jews. I guess I always thought it took him more time than that, but it really was just a few short months and he was on a path that lead to murder of millions of people.
I’m thankful to God today for the people who willingly gave their lives to protect not just the German or Jewish people, but many others. They did not, and do not, bear the sword in vain.
Romans 13:1-4
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.