The Man Who Turned Back on the Ice

On a bitter winter day in 1569, a Dutch Anabaptist named Dirk Willems squeezed through the window of his prison cell in Asperen, Holland. He had been arrested for the crime of being rebaptized as an adult — a capital offense under the Spanish-controlled government. With his heart pounding, he sprinted across a frozen pond on the outskirts of town.

The guard pursuing him was heavier. Halfway across, the ice gave way, and the man plunged into the freezing water, crying out for help.

Dirk Willems stopped running. He turned back.

He could have kept going. Freedom was steps away. Instead, he knelt on the cracking ice and pulled his enemy to safety — the very man tasked with dragging him back to execution. The guard, shaken and grateful, wanted to release him, but a local burgomaster standing on the shore ordered the arrest to proceed. Weeks later, Willems was burned at the stake.

Jesus said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." Most of us hear those words and think of small, manageable kindnesses — a polite nod to a difficult neighbor, a prayer through gritted teeth. Dirk Willems shows us the full, staggering weight of what Christ asks. He loved his enemy at the cost of his own life, reflecting the same scandalous mercy that carried Jesus to the cross.

"Give, and it will be given to you" — not always in this life, but pressed down, shaken together, and running over in the life to come.