The Pianist: Beauty in the Ruins (Psalm 137:4)
Wladyslaw Szpilman hides in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, a world-class pianist reduced to scavenging for survival. When a German officer discovers him and asks him to play, Szpilman sits at a bombed-out piano and performs Chopin. The psalm asks: How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Szpilman's music is not entertainment but witness—beauty asserting itself against annihilation. The officer, moved, helps Szpilman survive. Art does not end suffering, but it testifies that suffering has not ended everything. Sometimes the most radical act of resistance is to create beauty in the ruins.
Scripture References
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