Faithfully yours - Lessons we must never forget - part four
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- Published on Saturday, November 14, 2015
By Neil Strohschein
The Neepawa Banner
This past year, the nations of the world celebrated two significant military anniversaries.
May 8 was the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day. On May 8, 1945, officials from the German government signed the document signifying their country’s unconditional surrender to the Allied armies. The war in Europe was finally over.
September 2 was the 70th anniversary of Victory in Japan (VJ) Day. On September 2, 1945, representatives of the Imperial government of Japan boarded the USS Missouri and signed the document signifying their country’s unconditional surrender; ending the war in the Pacific.
World War II was by far the costliest war we have ever fought.
Over 60 million people—military and civilian—lost their lives; 6 million of which were Jewish people who died in the death camps of German-occupied Poland. Billions of dollars were spent on planes, tanks, trucks, boats, guns, bombs and bullets. It would take years of work and billions more to bury the dead, clean up the mess and rebuild the infrastructure destroyed in the war.
After 70 years, it’s helpful to look back and ask ourselves: “What have we learned from that period of world history?” Or perhaps we should really be asking: “Have we learned anything from those years?” We are still going to war. The killing hasn’t stopped. And it’s all because we haven’t learned the one lesson that we should have learned from the past 100 years of history.
The lesson—it only takes one spark to start a major fire.
The spark that started WWI was a trigger—a trigger attached to a gun in the hand of an assassin that took the lives of two members of Austria’s royal family. Austria and Germany vowed to get even with those who committed this act. But to do so, they had to invade Serbia. And when they did, World War I was officially under way.
The spark that triggered WWII was the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI. When a young Adolf Hitler read the terms of the treaty, his anger could not be contained. He vowed to get even with those he called “traitors who, by ending the war and signing the treaty, had stabbed the German people in the back.” The fire that his anger ignited spread throughout Europe, Asia and into North Africa. By the time hostilities finally ceased, every nation on earth had been drawn into the battle. One spark triggered an inferno that engulfed the entire world for a long time.
The same thing can (and does) happen in our world. One misspoken word is all it takes to start a dispute. Left unresolved, the dispute can become an argument. If others get involved and take sides, the dispute can divide families, communities, states and countries. And in extreme cases, that minor dispute can become a raging inferno that triggers another major war.
If we want to end war in our world, we need to attack it at its roots. We need to start treating one another with respect—loving them as God has loved us; accepting them as God has accepted us and forgiving them as God in Christ has forgiven us.
Differences between people will always happen. Disagreements will be common. But in an atmosphere of mutual respect, those disagreements can be worked out. They don’t have to escalate into open conflict that divides communities. By learning to get along with each other and working together we can avoid conflict and build a world in which all people everywhere can live in peace and safety.
