Irena Sendler, A Life Well Lived

This morning I watched a video about a German woman named Irena Sendler. She worked for the Warsaw Health Department during World War II. The Jews were rounded up and put in a ghetto without provisions of any kind. It was Irena's job to control tuberculosis so she had free access in and out of the ghetto. She persuaded the Jewish parents to let her take their children out so they would survive. She carried them out in tool boxes, sacks, and coffins. She trained her dog to bark so that the children's cries could not be heard. She placed them in homes where the children would be protected. In all, 2,500 children were saved by this dear woman.

She made a list of the children's names and their parents. She put the names in a jar and buried it under an apple tree in her yard. She hoped to unite the families after the war. She was eventually caught, tortured and sentenced to death but she escaped.

After the war she dug up the jar. Most of the parents of the children she had saved were dead. One of the babies she saved actually grew up and cared for Irena in her last years.

Irena died in May of this year. A life well lived. A life committed to God and others. Don't you know God was delighted to usher her into heaven!

What about us? What can be said of our lives? Are we using them for the good of others? Are we doing what we can to change lives?

Irena Sendler. A great example of a godly person living a godly life. A great example of living to help others. A great example of what one person can do to change the world.

Praying I will be like Irena, Gloria