January 19

Where are you God? God, are You even listening? These are common questions voiced by both believers and non-believers alike. But God always sees and hears, even when we are unaware.

My Mother-in-law, Katharine, unfortunately passed in 2021. She lived a long life, almost making it to 95. Most know little of her story. She was born in Poland in 1926, the third of four daughters. When the Nazi's invaded Poland in 1939, they entered her village and took her away from her family, a family that she never saw again, and was made to work as a servant in a German household near Berlin. She witnessed things that many have not, as it was not uncommon in that war-torn city to see the human carnage on the streets even as she would go on her errands.

As the war was coming to an end, and as the Russians invaded the city, the family that she worked for fled for their lives, leaving Katharine all alone with one suitcase on the streets of Berlin. She spent the next six years in a refugee camp before marrying her husband, Michael, and coming to America in 1951. There were probably plenty of times that she wondered where God was, or if He even cared during those years. My wife, Laurene, was born nine years later. She was a caring mother and eventually a caring grandmother. If you looked at her during these years she didn't smile that often, the weight of those difficult years had taken their toll on her.

My wife began a relationship with Jesus around 15 years ago. When Katharine was around 85, never getting to high school, English as her second language, my wife got her a Bible, and they read through the Bible together cover to cover five times over those next five years. Each day my wife would field her questions, and she taught her. Katharine's countenance changed as she gave her life over to Jesus Christ. Despite her physical decline after falling down a flight of stairs at the age of 91, despite her pain, she was His child. Is this the life she envisioned when she was in Poland at 13? Doubtfully. But was God present? I'm not sure how she survived her ordeal without Him. Was He listening? Yes, He sent the beautiful voice of my wife to lead her to Christ in her later years. He listens, He cares, and He uses willing vessels to accomplish His will for the objects of His love.

John Lundberg