Do I love like this?

We were in a prison cell; some 30 or 40 prisoners. The door was unlocked, and the guards pushed in a new prisoner. He was dirty like we were. He was shorn and had the striped uniform of a prisoner. In the half darkness, we did not recognize him until someone exclaimed, "This is Captian Popescu!"

Captain Popescu had been one of the worst torturers of the Christians. He had beaten and tortured even some of us who were now in the same cell with him. We wondered how he had become a prisoner of the communists and how he had been put in a prison cell reserved for Christians. We surrounded him and asked him his story.

With tears in his eyes, he told us that as he sat in his office a few months earlier, a soldier on duty knocked at the door and said, "Outside is a boy of 12 or 13 who has a flower for your wife." The captain scratched his head. He did not remember that it was his wife's birthday, but in any case, he allowed the boy to enter. The boy entered with the flower in his hand, very shy, but very decided, and said, "Captain, you are the one who has put my father and mother in prison. Today is my mother's birthday. I have the habit every year on this day, out of my little pocket money, to buy a flower for her. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today. But my mother is a Christian, and she taught me since I was a little child to love my enemies, and to reward evil with good. I thought to give joy to the mother of your children. Please take this flower to your wife and tell her about my love and about the love of Christ."

It was too much even for a communist torturer. As a creature of God, he also had been enlightened with the light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. (John 1:9) He embraced the child. He could not beat any more. He could not torture any more. He was no longer useful as an officer of the communist secret police. He came to suffer together with the children of God and rejoiced in his new life. Let us have before our eyes the love of Christ, who saved us. Let us continue to simply believe in love.

-If Prison Walls Could Speak, by Richard Wurmbrand, Paraphrased

This was taken from the monthly newsletter of Voice of the Martyrs, an organization devoted to strengthening and supporting the persecuted church. Hebrews 13:3 admonishes us to "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." To learn more about Voice of the Martyrs or sign up for their newsletter, go to www.persecution.com