Your Father Thinks of You

Maybe you find yourself in a dark season. Maybe you feel that nobody is there
or understands. Take heart in knowing your Heavenly Father thinks of you.

Your Father Thinks of You

This week's devotions are written by my friend Jessica Hermann, former director of our college ministry at Great Hills Baptist Church.

- Pastor Danny

Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, oder Guten Abend, zusammen! (Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, everyone!)

One of the realities of living in Germany is being faced very often with the atrocities that took place here during the Holocaust. Memorials for various events and people can be found in almost every town. Small brass squares called "Stolpersteine" or "Stumbling Stones" are installed in front of homes all over Germany where Holocaust victims held their last voluntary address. These little stones say basic information about the person, and most end by describing their fate: "Murdered". There is one just a few streets from my home that I pass when I walk to the train station. It is sobering to think how close to home these things happened.

There is a museum in Cologne just 20 minutes from my home called the EL-DE Haus. This building looks so normal from the outside with gray bricks that blend in seamlessly to its neighboring buildings. One could easily pass by it today and have no idea what horrendous things took place there. One of the few buildings to survive the massive bombings of Cologne, the EL-DE Haus was leased to the Nazi Gestapo in the 1940s as their local headquarters and prison. Today, the upper levels of the museum hold displays of incriminating stories about the horrendous work of the Gestapo and sobering stories of victims. The basement, however, feels like a whole other world. Highly preserved just one floor beneath ground level was the Gestapo prison. The cells are still there, with large menacing doors standing open to each cell. On the walls of these cells are hundreds of inscriptions that prisoners wrote while they were detained in these small, musty cells. You can read inscriptions in many languages as well as drawings and tables with tally marks used to keep count of the days gone by.

While my friend and I explored this eerie place, we saw one inscription that caught our attention. We are both German language students, and we noticed its large all-capital letters that said, "WENN KEINER AN DICH DENKT DEINE MUTTER DENKT AN DICH," which translates to, "When no one thinks of you, your mother thinks of you." It caught my attention because firstly, I was so excited that I was able to translate it. But secondly, the message got me thinking. I came to learn that this was written by a teenage boy who was detained and whose mother would come by the prison everyday to try to speak to her son through a little hole in the top of the cell that reached the ground level outside.

It made me consider how this boy had hope that even in the darkest of places, his mother still thought of him. He was out of sight but far from forgotten by the one who loved him most.

Some are lucky enough to have mothers like this. Others may not. But there is one truth I can say with absolute certainty: When nobody thinks of you, your Heavenly Father thinks of you.

In Psalm 139, the psalmist writes, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,' even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you... How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand." (Psalm 139:7-12, 17-18)

Maybe you find yourself in a dark season. Maybe you find yourself in a prison cell of stress, fear, anxiety, loneliness, insecurity, grief etc. and you feel that nobody is there, or at least, nobody understands. Maybe your life looks outwardly fine, but in a crowded room, you feel completely alone.

Take heart today in knowing that your Heavenly Father thinks of you. This passage in Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we can go where God is not present. Even in the darkest of places, God's promise to never leave or forsake you remains. His thoughts are so vast (verse 17) and many of them are toward you. I pray you take heart and hope in this truth. Your Heavenly Father sees you.

It's been a pleasure to share with you this week. If you ever find yourself in Germany and need some tips, be sure to look me up!

Tschüss! (Bye!)

- Jessica

Partner with us in spreading the Gospel!

Will you help fuel our efforts to spread the Gospel
and equip and empower other Christians to do the same?

Count me in! ▶

Podcast of the Week

Winning the Battle in Your Mind, Pt. 3

Pastor Danny continues his new series on overcoming fear, anxiety, depression, and other mental struggles, which are now more prevalent than ever before.

Listen on your preferred platform: