The week of our wedding, Richard and I got an email from his college roommate Steven, about coming to visit us in Washington in October. Steven and his girlfriend Anna are some serious planners, and even though we were overwhelmed with all the excitement that comes with a wedding, we were excited about the prospect about having Steven and Anna as guests. October has quickly arrived, and I was thrilled to pick up our friends from BWI yesterday. Another good Wofford friend, Chris, joined us for appetizers at our house and mussels out last night and ended up staying with us too!
Mussel Bar in downtown Bethesda
It's been great fun to put our monogrammed towels and beautiful serving pieces to good use, and I love being able to host friends. Steven and Anna (and Chris!) are fun, easy guests who keep us laughing, and I am thankful they are here!
A benefit of having out-of-town company is getting to do some sight-seeing that we don't always take the time to do. This morning we went to the Holocaust Museum, and it's hard to put into words the impact that it had on me. I never was able to watch Schindler's List, and though I've read a great deal on WWII and the Holocaust, I'd never fully experienced the gravity of what happened under Hitler's rule. In seeing the shoes of the victims left behind and hearing escape stories in the voices of concentration camp, I was moved to the core ...and just kept thinking, WHY? Why, God, did this unbelievable number of people have to be persecuted in this way? And where were You in all of this? I have no idea what the answer to that hard, hard question is, but I do know that the Holocaust was the absolute antithesis of His plan for us. At the end of the permanent exhibit, you enter a large room with a fire on one end burning over parts of earth taken from the ghettos, the concentration camps, and the WWII battlegrounds. The names of concentration camps are etched in the walls, and the large space is meant for remembrance and reflection. And while there were several verses displayed, this one stuck with me the most:
Deuteronomy 30:19
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