Homage to a Broken Man: The Life of J. Heinrich Arnold - Plough

Conversion40ning at dinner Oswald stood up and proclaimed, “To the pure all things arepure,” and disrobed.Eberhard ordered Oswald to dress himself, and then confronted him: “Jesuswants to free you from the evil that is tormenting you. But you mustchoose whether you want to be freed, or not.”At this Oswald had shrieked that the demons inside him would tear himto pieces, and had run from the room. At the table, no one had spoken ormoved. But in his mind Heiner could still hear the barking of the dogs thatmarked Oswald’s route as he fled through the village.Heiner pondered why his father welcomed people like Oswald when evenhis little sister, Monika, seemed repelled by them, and why they flocked toSannerz like moths to a candle in the first place. But as he wondered, he foundhis own answer: it was the love such broken spirits found there. Heiner noticedit when his father had turned Bruno’s face toward the sun, but also whenhe thundered at Oswald. That was love, too. Then there was his father’s authority—theway he spoke with a finality that seemed to come from beyond him.Heiner never dared mention these things, but he sensed it had somethingto do with his father’s closeness to Jesus. And so one day he shyly asked him,“How does one find Jesus?”“If you seek, you will find,” his father answered.One evening at dinner, Eberhard told the household another remarkablestory. Rachoff was a young man who had lived in the Russian port city ofArchangelsk in the previous century. His wealth promised him a life of ease,and yet, like Sundar Singh, a strange vision had utterly changed him.One night in his sleep Rachoff saw a man plowing as the sun rose above thefield. Suddenly from a poor hut nearby came the sound of a violin. The manat the plow stopped and listened, and then went on. Soon the sound beganagain, though now it was the crying of a child. The man left his plow, wentinto the hut, and found a sick baby near to death. Bending over the child,he caressed it, and it was healed. Then Rachoff recognized the plowman. Hisheart bursting, he shouted, “Brother Jesus, I am coming!”Homage to a Broken Man