One of my most treasured purchases in Israel is this Yad Vashem Memorial Pin because it has so many deep meanings and memories.
Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to all who died in the Holocaust. The Jews who died are remembered as are the Gentiles who helped them in the fight against Nazi Germany.
The blurb inside the packaging says “The barbed wire stem recalls the pain and trauma of the Holocaust, while the leaves stemming from the wire symbolize the rebirth and hope that emerged in the wake of this unparalleled tragedy. Wearing this pin expresses your commitment to remembering the past in order to ensure a better future for our children.”
I’ve worn a pin like this several times. I should say I’ve worn and broken pins like this one. Now I keep it safely in the packaging. The pin is made of soft pewter and is fragile.
Even the easy breakage of the pin adds to the meaning for me as I listen to the chaos and hate circling our world today. So many people behave as though they only see the barb wire and ignore the leaves. For me, as a Christian, I see Jesus in the leaves. He is my hope.
NOTE: This was on my heart today when I set up a different blog, so I changed the subject. I will be blogging about how we felt when we visited Yad Vashem in January.