77. The number is a bit vague. Is it a special number? Obviously, many connect quickly to the number 7 – the number of days in the week, the Sabbath, the number for spiritual as opposed to earthly matters.
There is a tradition, albeit a vague tradition, that connects the number 77 to an angelic number system. The number means to dig below the surface of life. Gather more information and try to make sense of of the world around you. It requires keeping your own desires in check and a deep sense of humility.
So, let’s look at the number 77 and see where it leads us today. Seventy-Seven years ago today – January 27, 1945 – A very significant event took place. The largest and most infamous Nazi extermination camp in Poland … Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some say as high as a million victims, prisoners, and others were killed at this camp. And 77 years ago, this camp was liberated. Nobles, politicians, athletes, artists, actors, professors, rabbis, priests, Americans, French, Germans, Poles … these are just the some of the categories of people gased, hung, shot, burned at Aushcwitz. And 77 years ago, the Allies liberated the camp and put an end to at least part of the crime against humanity.
We know the stories of Anne Frank, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie ten Boom. We know the depth of darkness in humanity. And we know the darkness still exists. Maybe not in concentration camps of the Nazi Party of the Third Reich, but it exists,
So, 77 years ago, the camp was liberated.
And 17 years go today, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as the Holocaust Remembrance Day, or The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust History.
The theme for this year … One Day. And this is a pretty good concept.
Pick One Day in history and learn … one day in history and see what happened that day that continues to impact life.
Live One Day at a Time. Don’t live in the past. It’s over. Don’t live only for the future. It may never arrive. Live today – One Day at a time. Carpe Diem.
One Day in the Future … We live for a better future. We live for deliverance. We live for a day the evil no longer is around.
Do you see how this is wisdom that comes straight from Scripture (whether the organizers realized or not) …
Pick One Day in the past …. Remember the cross, the day that changed everything.
Live One Day at a time … forget what is behind, press forward. But also realize only God controls the future, so live for today.
One Day for the future … we long for that Blessed Hope, that Day Jesus returns and makes all things new. Until then, we continue to fight to end evils such as the Holocaust.
So January 27, 2022 may be 77 years from when the a Nazi Evil came to an end, but it is also a day we recognize God’s greatness and the future we have before us. And we should know that every day.
For a deeper appreciation, I encourage the book The Hiding Place. It tells the story of the ten Booms and how God was there even in the middle of the darkness.
Muddy Shoes by Todd 
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