Hope from Budapest, Hungary.

When I was young I developed a passion for the consumption of all things World War II. I wanted to understand what I considered to be the most epic physical struggle in history. I don't remember the source, but I had heard of a family living in German occupied Budapest which the Russians were besieging during their inexorable counter offensive into the heart of Europe. They talked of how the fighting was so intense you could not go out into the streets for fear of being shot. The bullets were flying so thick down the boulevards it was like trying to push your way through a lead wall. What the civilians ended up doing was stretching lines across the streets from house to house where they could sling, slide or pull along products necessary for survival. It was a city full of misery and death.

That word picture left such an impression on my mind that it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the name of the city in this YouTube video:



I cried during the video (all 12 times I watched it today) and was so thankful for the redemption of that city and my memories of it. It is most apparently not a city on the edge of death as it once was. God will have His ultimate victory and it will be won by the smiles on children's faces and the dancing of old people. This epic war will not be won physically however, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12). The word picture in my mind now is one that points to heaven where we will all dance with perfect joy and great abandon in safety on the streets of gold in the city of God!

Update: While writing this, I found out that some of my favorite pieces of music by Antonio Vivaldi and Franz Schubert were played by the Budapest Strings.