PAYING THE COST FOR ME

In the years of the Civil War

when the opposing armies were contending for power, conquering and losing ground in the course of three years, a small town fell into the hands of the Red army which had been held by the remnants of the Imperial troops. A women found herself there with her two small children, four and five years of age, in danger of death because her husband belonged to the opposite camp. She hid in an abandoned house hoping that the time would came when she would be able to escape. One evening a young woman, Natalie, of her own age, in  the early twenties, knocked at the door and asked her whether she was so-and-so. When the mother sait she was, Natalie warned her that she had been discovered and would be fetchd that very night in order to be shot. Natalie added, "You must escape at once". The mother looked at the children and said, "How could I?" Natalie, who had been nothing but a physical neighbour, became at that moment the neighbour of the Gospel. She said, "You can, because I will stay behind and call  myself by your name when they come to fatch you". "But you will be shot" said the mother. "Yes, but I have no children". And she stayed behind. 

We can imagine what happened then. We can see the night coming, wrapping in darkness, in gloom, in cold and dump, this cottage. We can see there a woman who was waiting for her death to come and we can remember the Garden of Gethsemane. We can imagine Natalie asking that this cup should pass her by and being met like Christ by divine silence.  We can imagine her turning in intention towards those who might have support her, but who were out of reach. The disciples of Christ slept; and she could turn to no one without betraying. We can imagine her praying that at least her sacrifice should not be in vain...

She died, shot. The moter and the children escaped. (  Bishop and surgeon Anthony Bloom)

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