What size are your choices? Let me share this story with you, please, to demonstrate what I mean by the question.

A recent interview on television told how people were treated in concentration camps during the 2nd World War. The stories of suffering and degradation were too horrible to think about and we were left stunned by what survivors had experienced.

One Jewish woman described what happened at her camp when they were liberated from their guards. She said the liberators so placed the previous guards that they were immobilized and unable to escape. They were now put at the mercy of their former victims; now as helpless and vulnerable as their victims had been.

The woman said the inmates of the camp were told they could ‘do as they liked’ with their former guards. The guards were groveling, pleading for the mercy they had never shown their victims. The world would have understood if their victims had exacted terrible revenge because the guards certainly deserved it

The woman said, ‘ We just looked at them and walked away. Nobody touched them.’

She and those with her, made a choice. They chose the teachings of their faith even after years of unimaginable degradation.

The choice to not revenge themselves was entirely within the teachings of both the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament and of the New. Jesus is very clear about it. He said, ‘Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the law and the prophets.’ Matthew 7:12.

The God they respected was bigger than evil.

What size is God to you? Is He big enough for you to say, ‘Though heart and body fail, yet God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever’? (Psalm 73:26, REB.)

Elizabeth Price reprice@dragnet.com.au