This section of France saw two world wars in a little over 30 years last century. It is beautiful country of rolling hills with farm fields of barley, wheat, corn and Hops. In many ways it reminds me of Wisconsin. The hills and valleys are perhaps a bit more like western Wisconsin but the country side makes me think of home.
Perhaps the most notable part of the day was not connected to the Reformation, but to the battles fought here in World War I at the Argonne forests and the city area around Verdun. The battle of Verdun was the costliest battle of the war. Over 700,000 soldiers from France and its Allies, and Germany were killed. The roadways leading to the sites that commemorate the battle weaved through wooded countrysides with inundations in the land covered over by grasses and trees that hide the signs of bombardments and mines. Even to this day there are signs along the roads telling those who wander through the area to stay on marked paths because even today - 100 years later - there are unexploded ordinance buried in the fields and forests surrounding it. We were told of a farmer who decided to open a field and thought it best to let the sheep in there first only to have one of the sheep step on a mine and blow up killing several other sheep besides.
We made our journey to a memorial site called Fort Douaumont...a place that was especially tragic. Here the burial site of tens of thousands of soldiers, plus the remains of 100's of thousands of bones that cannot be identified are entombed in a memorial.
As we traveled along I could not help but reflect upon the ways of man versus the Kingdom of God. Not once, but several times these grounds have been fought for in the name of religion. Religion is fed on pride, the rights and privileges of those who are "in" against the rest. It is man-centered and almost always results in hatred and strife, devoid of the love of God.
The writer of Proverbs muses the truth....
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 16:25 ESV)"
Along the trip our bus past fields and fields of poppies.
Poppies are the symbols of the end of the war, the great armistice and the pronouncement that this was "the war that ends all wars"...such is the wisdom of man. It has been 100 years since this war and yet wars continue on.
Peace, Peace when there is no peace!
Religion cannot produce peace, neither can any philosophy or government.
Peter says it best, "In Christ Jesus, he is our peace".
Don't we realize that apart from the Gospel, there will never be peace?
In Strasbourg, Peace to You
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