“Tear Down This Wall!”

In 1961, a huge concrete block wall laced with barbed wire and surveillance cameras was built in Berlin, dividing the city between the East sector (held by the Soviet Union) and the West. The Soviets said that it kept westerners from coming into the Communist-held East. But the truth is, the wall was erected to keep easterners from escaping the prison their city and nation had become. In the 80s, the breezes of freedom began to blow. And on June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech near the Berlin Wall in which he challenged the Soviet leader, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The cheers of the crowd were heard around the world, and 29 months later, in November of 1989, they began dismantling the wall.

Ken and I were in Germany shortly after that, and we just had to see it for ourselves. Workers with jackhammers were demolishing the concrete wall. Ken asked one of the workers if he could borrow his hammer – with it, Ken chipped away pieces of wall that had been painted with freedom slogans (we still have those bits of concrete :-). Today is the anniversary of Reagan’s speech, and I’m reminded of Psalm 119:45, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” Oh, may Cold War history never repeat itself; may we earnestly seek God’s precepts in our nation and so protect our precious liberties!