How far would we go...
Illustration
How far would we go to keep a promise? In 1999, a certain man went very far indeed.
His name was Hans Kupperfahrenberg. He traveled from his home in Essen, Germany, to
a little village in Normandy, France, called Tilly-La-Campagne. Mr. Kupperfahrenberg
traveled all that way to deliver a ham. Stranger yet, he did so to fulfill a promise he had
made 54 years before.
The year was 1944, just a month after the Normandy invasion. The German army was in chaotic retreat. Mr. Kupperfahrenberg and several comrades from the 21st Armored Division were hungry. They stopped at a French farmhouse to beg for food.
Madame Louise Marie gave them some eggs. She told the soldiers they could cook them in her fireplace. Grateful for this meager food, Mr. Kupperfahrenberg was frying up an omelet when something large and round came tumbling down from the chimney, right into his frying pan.
.
It was a beautiful ham. The owners of that house had hidden it up the chimney: but the ham chose that very inopportune moment to come tumbling down. It's not hard to guess what happened next: the soldiers ate it.
Mr. Kupperfahrenberg felt bad, afterward, when he recalled how he and his comrades had stolen the woman's ham. After all, they had been guests in her home and this was how they repaid her! He made himself a promise: someday he would find a way to make amends.
That "someday" came in April 1999. Louise Marie was 87 years old and Mr. Kupperfahrenberg was 75. In a ceremony at the town hall, with all the villagers looking on, he presented his former host with two hams: one German, one French. The promise -- the one he had made to himself 54 years ago -- had been fulfilled.
A promise is a sacred thing, as Solomon recognizes in his great celebration of God's covenant in 1 Kings 8.
The year was 1944, just a month after the Normandy invasion. The German army was in chaotic retreat. Mr. Kupperfahrenberg and several comrades from the 21st Armored Division were hungry. They stopped at a French farmhouse to beg for food.
Madame Louise Marie gave them some eggs. She told the soldiers they could cook them in her fireplace. Grateful for this meager food, Mr. Kupperfahrenberg was frying up an omelet when something large and round came tumbling down from the chimney, right into his frying pan.
.
It was a beautiful ham. The owners of that house had hidden it up the chimney: but the ham chose that very inopportune moment to come tumbling down. It's not hard to guess what happened next: the soldiers ate it.
Mr. Kupperfahrenberg felt bad, afterward, when he recalled how he and his comrades had stolen the woman's ham. After all, they had been guests in her home and this was how they repaid her! He made himself a promise: someday he would find a way to make amends.
That "someday" came in April 1999. Louise Marie was 87 years old and Mr. Kupperfahrenberg was 75. In a ceremony at the town hall, with all the villagers looking on, he presented his former host with two hams: one German, one French. The promise -- the one he had made to himself 54 years ago -- had been fulfilled.
A promise is a sacred thing, as Solomon recognizes in his great celebration of God's covenant in 1 Kings 8.
