If You Had Known Who You Were

It is difficult to regard as a sighting of delight, but it certainly speaks to humanity. This sign, outside the Nyamata church in Rwanda, reads, "If you had known who you were, and who I was, you would not have killed me."But they did not know, as the mass graves behind the church bear witness.


The sanctuary, which the victims had hoped would be a place of refuge, is now a memorial. Multiply these pictures by 50, and you will have a better sense of its proportion. Its bloodstained altar remains a testimony to what happened here, when humans forgot their humanity.

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were gone" (Matt. 2:18).

It is good that forgiveness does not require forgetting; otherwise it would not be possible. But forgiveness does call for a different kind of remembering. We remember that we have determined not to seek revenge. We remember a suffering Savior. We remember that those who forgot their humanity are themselves human. We remember that we have promised grace. We remember to breathe deeply the breath of life.

Bob