The posters in the window
The posters in the window have faded after a year.
Each one, a watercolor portrait of one of the hostages, was painted by a local artist, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, in the hope the hostages would become survivors, too.
Across the upper right corner of a few of the posters are small signs taped diagonally saying “RESCUED.” But most of the posters have no signs. They show the smiling faces of the remaining hostages in moments of happiness before their world was invaded and turned upside down.
Each day the colors on the posters fade a little more. The daily sunlight bleaches them as summer turns toward fall. It’s been a full year since the portraits were made and taped to the store window in the hope one day the hostages would return and the posters could be taken down, fragments of history no longer needed to remind people of what had happened.
Except a year later the hostages are still not free, and the posters are still taped to the windows, fading more and more each day.
As one season replaces another, there are no clear steps being taken to free the hostages, and the war in Gaza continues and has expanded into Lebanon (and into the West Bank), and the hostages are still held captive, imprisoned who knows where, and who knows if still alive, still able to breathe, to walk, to hope, to dream.
Each time I walk past the store windows with the posters taped to the glass, I stop to gaze at the faces of the hostages and pray for their release, even as their images fade more and more, becoming fainter and fainter.
And I can’t help wondering if the hostages will still be held captive a week, a month, a year from now, and how these posters will look once they’ve faded more and more from view and the paper has turned as white as the snow that will surely fall this winter.
And I wonder, too, if any of our prayers for the hostages will be answered, and if the artist who drew these images will decide to paint their portraits again to replace those that have faded, and if new posters will be taped to the windows.
It’s hard to believe we’re beginning a new year while the hostages remain trapped in last year’s horror. It’s hard to believe their portraits are still taped to the window. It’s hard to believe that we are still praying for the safe return of each hostage.
May the new year bring them all home and bring an end to war.