WOYWW: By Their Fruits

I bought some Japanese brushes and I started painting them. That’s what’s on my desk! 

“By their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:16

What fruit am I bearing? Do I bear good fruit? I like reading about the saints, and also ordinary men and women who are known for their good fruit because then I am prodded to do the same. Sometimes in the busyness of life, we forget to serve others, to be generous, to be what God wants us to be. 

Almost all of us know Anne Frank from the diary she wrote, “The Diary of a Young Girl” which was publishing hed after she died at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She wrote of how her family hid in concealed rooms until they were arrested by the Nazis. In 1999, Time Magazine named her one of the heroes and icons of the 20th century, stating, “With a diary kept in a secret attic, she braved the Nazis and lent a searing voice to the fight for human dignity".

We can say Anne Frank is the fruit of her father, Otto Frank, the only one in their family to survive the brutal Nazi camps. After Anne’s books were published, many young men and women wrote Otto. He answered each and every one of those letters until he was too old to do it. One letter writer, Vassa, wrote him in Greek and Otto brought the letter to the Greek embassy to translate. She told him about her horrifying experience during the war, how her father was murdered in front of her, and how she lost interest in life itself. Then Vassa saw the play about Anne, and wrote to Otto. He wrote back, encouraging her, saying that while Anne was deprived of seeing her goals achieved, Vassa had a whole lifetime of promise before her. The correspondence continued and Vassa overcame her depression. 

He would write to each one and say, “If you want to honor Anne’s memory and the people who died, do what Anne wanted so very much- do good for other people.” 

When Cara Wilson visited Otto after years of correspondence, she saw in his little study wall-to-wall notebooks bursting with letters. And Otto showed her a notebook filled with HER letters, starting from when she was 12 years old. Otto lost his family but he gained many sons and daughters through the years. John Neiman became a priest. He would write to Sumi from Japan, who signed herself, “Your daughter, Sumi”. He advised them all. 

It is no wonder that Anne was brave, strong and hopeful. Her father was the same and encouraged many people become brave, strong and hopeful.