When the sky is weeping

A visit to Auschwitz on Good Friday

Welcome to my table, sweet friend! I send out this weekly Glorygram as an invitation for you to pull up a chair and linger with me at the table. I’m serving up a slice of my Grandma Sara’s Easter bread slathered with butter and strawberry jam. She used to make us little personal braided loaves for Easter each year. Join me for a feast on the glory of God!

---

As we followed the twists and turns of the route running away from Krakow’s city center, the rain began to smack against the windows of the bus. Although we did not expect rain, it seemed apropos as we headed for Auschwitz-Berkenau.

All week I felt a sense of low-grade dread in my spirit. I knew our visit to Auschwitz was coming.

We played tourist in five countries in ten days and each felt like a new delight. From the sun skipping across the spires of Prague to the fairy tale feel of Czesky Krumlov, from the classical concert we enjoyed in Vienna to the thick hot chocolate we sipped in Bratslava, we certainly tasted His glory.

However, Auschwitz is not a tourist attraction; it’s a memorial to the thousands of lives senselessly snuffed out by evil. This place reminds the living of the dead.

I knew I needed to go even though I didn’t want to go to that place that represents tragedy and atrocity to people around the world.

“Genocide presents us with an image so appalling that it can be damaging to look. But we know we must look. We know that repressing memory, willed forgetting, is perhaps the greatest danger we face as a species. If we want to remain fully human, we have no choice but to confront and remember the past, to learn, and to act on what we’ve learned.”¹

On the bus, our guide Ivan who faithfully traveled with us through seven countries, unpacked the history of the rise of Nazism in the world. He prepared us with context for what we would bear witness to in the death camps. I felt the heaviness of anticipatory grief in my body - a grief I have known in other seasons with other contexts.

As our group of 39 American chaperones and students waited in the long line to get in, a full arched rainbow appeared faintly in the distance, piercing through the clouds. The imagery illuminated by nature was too bold to ignore. This splash of color served as a symbol of God’s promise in Genesis to bring beauty from ashes.

Was it possible to cling to His promises even in this horrific place?

Weeping willows lined the plaza as we entered the camp and our tour commenced. As we walked through the grounds and the gas chambers, the cramped living quarters and work areas, I couldn’t stop thinking about the way the dust clung to our shoes as we trudged up the stairs. The place swirls with the ashes of those 232,000 Jews transferred from around Europe to this place.

The tears flowed when we reached the room full of photos of children who were brought to the camp. Their worn faces in those black and white photos pierced my mama heart. Little ones separated from their sibling and mothers. We heard details of the suffering they endured.

I wondered how Mary, Jesus’ mother, felt that day when she saw her son hung upon that cross - his body bruised and broken. The one who she carried in her womb would meet an atrocious death like these innocent Jewish children.

The rain picked up, the drops soaking through the dark gray sleeves of my blouse. I shuddered in the cold.

The sky was crying out on Good Friday, tears for the Jews who were exterminated, tears for our Savior who was crucified, tears for the brokenness of our world and the evil that still persists.

Holocaust in its original means “a sacrifice in which the offering was burned completely on the altar.”

This definition burned a hole in my heart as I ascended the stairs to walk through the gas chambers where thousands met their doom. These lives were sacrificed because of a ravenous desire for power and land. These babies and women and grandpas and sons - image bearers of God - were reduced to skeletons and dust.

I noticed a tiny cross etched into the wall, and thought of my Savior who chose to go to the cross. His birth, his life, and his death were predicted by prophecies hundreds of years before. And yet, the grief was fresh, and I imagine disorienting.

Today is often called Silent Saturday. This is a day to sit in the space between death and resurrection. We are invited to linger in the confusion, the questioning, the grief with Jesus’ disciples and family.

Silent Saturday marks the dark night of the soul, that time when it feels like God is silent, when we might question what we believe. This is a day when hope feels elusive, like the sun hiding behind stormy clouds. We are waiting, we are weeping, we are searching for that glimmer.

After my time at Auschwitz-Berkinau, I am still processing. I know better than to stuff down the grief. I know how important it is to lament and remember.

We need Silent Saturday in order to arrive at Resurrection Sunday. Wandering in darkness is so often the way we reach light.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:5 NLT).

---

Glory recommendations

Each week I like to share links to some of my own work or resources that are inspiring me and my family to chase after God’s glory! Here are five for you to check out this week:

1. Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday! I was part of a special team at Proverbs 31 Ministries that wrote devotionals ushering people through this Holy week. Join us here and look for mine releasing Easter Sunday! Read it directly here: https://proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2025/04/20/from-grief-to-glory-the-women-who-ran-to-share-the-good-news

2. As a Christian, you know you're supposed to pray. But do you ever find yourself wrestling with any of these questions related to prayer?

   • Do I have to pray the right way for God to answer my prayer?

   • Why does God sometimes not answer my prayers?

   • Am I still praying if I read pre-written prayers?

   If you've pondered these questions or others about prayer, Pray Like This is for you. Maybe prayer has been tough for you and feels like you're wrestling with God. Maybe you've prayed for the same thing for years without answer. In this six-week Bible study of the Gospel of Matthew, Bible teacher Barb Roose takes a deep dive with you into Jesus' prayer patterns. I love my friend Barb’s practical teaching and rich storytelling in this study and all of her writing. This book is the April giveaway! Comment below with why you’d like to win this one.

3. Looking for a playlist for your Easter morning brunch or family festivities. I curated this collection of music on Spotify called “Resurrection Rising.” You can listen for free and share the deep theology in these songs with your people.

4. All winter she waited, wondered, rested until one day in the deep soil of anticipation and grief she felt the ground around her warming. She felt her strength rising, pushing through the transition. The pain was acute there, but the shadow was lifted. And now, fully-rooted, well-nourished she extended her arms in abandon toward the light. She burst through hardened earth – a flash of fire – her petals singing Spring! Read my full post on “Resurrection Rising” as we head into Holy Week.

   

5. Are you interested in writing Bible studies? Would you like to hear more of the behind the scenes of the publishing process? I was on the “Writing at the Red House” podcast with my friend Kathi Lipp chatting about how to write Bible studies that resonate:

   I loved sharing about my new study, Redeemer: God’s Lovingkindness in the Book of Ruth.

---

Friend, I’m so grateful you are a part of my Glorygram tribe! I count it an incredible privilege to connect with each of you through this Glorygram. I offer a paid subscription to this newsletter with all the bells and whistles! For $50 per year (or $5 a month), you'll gain access to my full archive, bonus posts, monthly recipe posts, and my upcoming Lent devotional!

While the free weekly emails will continue, my subscription-only content will be an extension of the foundation we've built together. My goal is always to help you continue to feast on God’s glory in your everyday lives.

To subscribe and unlock this exclusive content, simply hit the Subscribe Now button. Founding members will also get a personalized, signed copy of one of my books! I am so grateful for all of your prayers and support!

1. Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation