My earliest youthful recollections are of a dark and troubled time in postwar Germany.  The nation of my origin had been bombed and beaten so badly that little was left but frayed nerves and a people driven to exhaustion from loss and anxiety. There were shortages of most necessities. Many ruined, bombed-out homes were also fatherless families—women and children struggling to survive.

Yet in my family we were alive and blessed exceedingly, in that Dad had been spared, though weak from illness, to take care of what remained. I look back in retrospect and understand it was by divine Providence that we survived at all and were able to rebuild our little country home and our lives from the rubble and ruin.

In the face of such great adversity, the Eternal God showed us great mercy; He delivered us from all our troubles. God is not a respecter of persons, but shows Himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). I do not know about the heart of others and must leave that to God, because we hardly realize where or whether we, ourselves, with our hearts, fit into God’s plan. Again, looking back, it was simply an act of undeserved grace.

Nevertheless, we had cried out to Him and He delivered us (Psalm 34:6-9). And for that we were very grateful! To this day I am still filled with gratitude for what the Almighty provided for us. Now we have long since moved on—to a land of promise, as it were—on the North American continent.

Strangely, history has a way of repeating itself. We may once more need deliverance from impending disaster, unless the tide of national economic collapse is turned. But the sick economy is only an outward sign of an inner void—a void of spiritual values and moral underpinnings of this once great nation of the United States of America. Will there be a deliverance from certain ruin without a change of heart—repentance—on a national scale?

In the meantime, having settled in "the land of the free, and the home of the brave," my family learned of the truth from the Word of God—a way of life we had never heard before. I came to understand the Bible is not only a book about laws but a book about promises to those whom God loves.

The true land of promise lies yet ahead of us, not fully realized until Jesus Christ will once again come to earth as promised—only this time with the authority and power to replace the governments that dared to oppose the will of God. It will be a time of divine Providence for all mankind, free at last to worship and serve our Creator—free to fulfill our true destiny. UN