JOHANNA, a young Jewish girl of 17, was living in Holland during World War II. What a sad time it was for the Jewish people during those years, for thousands of them were taken away, and were never seen again.
One day Johanna’s parents and two older brothers were taken away, but Johanna escaped. Soon afterward she was approached by a friend who asked her if she would like to hide secretly in someone’s home. “Yes,” she said, and he directed her to a certain house. The kind man there let her in, and he told her he was going to take her far away and hide her. First of all, he cut off the large yellow star she was wearing on her coat, for all Jews were strictly required to wear them. Then he gave her different clothes to put on, and told her to follow him. “Just call me Uncle Bas,” he said, “and come with me.” What a dear, kind man Uncle Bas proved to be!
Soon Johanna and Uncle Bas were on a train speeding away to the north of Holland. They arrived at Uncle Bas’ home, and he introduced Johanna to his wife, called Aunt Jo, besides two other Jewish girls who were kept hiding in the attic.
Johanna stayed at Uncle Bas’ home for several months. No one in the neighborhood knew about the girls in hiding, for it was against the law to harbor a Jewish person in one’s home. The girls were required never to talk above a whisper, and always to tiptoe around the house.
Johanna noticed that Uncle Bas and Aunt Jo were very happy people, and they seemed to have a peace and joy that she did not have. Soon she found out that Uncle Bas was a preacher at the church next door. There was a secret tunnel from the house to the church, and sometimes Johanna would go through the tunnel and sit under the church. There, in hiding, she could hear Uncle Bas preach, but she did not understand very much that was said. The seasons were so strange and new, and the people there seemed to worship a different God than the one she had heard about at the synagogue during her childhood.
Johanna found a Bible in Uncle Bas’ home, and she spent many long hours in the attic reading it. Who was this wonderful Jew named Jesus she was reading about? She had never heard His name before. What wonderful miracles He did, healing the sick, raising the dead, and giving sight to the blind. Johanna thrilled over His life, but how sad she felt that the Jews had rejected Him, and killed Him. Why had she heard nothing of this Man, her Messiah, during her childhood? Why was it that none of her Jewish friends seemed to know anything about Him?
One day Uncle Bas came to Johanna and said, “Our hideout has been found, and you will have to be rushed to another place.” So in the middle of the night Johanna was rushed out of the town to the attic of another family. There she read more and more of her dear Messiah, and in that attic she took Christ as her Saviour. What happy hours she spent there, with only her Bible and the Holy Spirit to show her the wonderful truths out of God’s precious Word. She said that the little hymn suited her exactly:
“Heaven above is brighter blue,
Earth beneath is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue,
Christless eyes have never seen.
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know as now I know,
I am HIS, and HE IS MINE!”
Dear reader, have you had that happy day when you took Christ as your Saviour? Can you say, “He is mine?”
The months went by, and Johanna was secreted away to other homes and hidden in more attics. She almost lost count of the different homes she was taken to, and secreted away. But always she carried her much-loved Bible, and learned many more truths from God’s Word. By 1944 the war was nearing its end, and when the Allied troops arrived, Johanna was free to go about the streets as she wished. At that time she was staying with a Christian family, and she asked them if she could be baptized. The family took Johanna to see their preacher, who treated her very kindly and listened to her story. He was amazed at her profound knowledge of the Scriptures, which she had learned all alone in the attic. What a happy day it was for her when she was baptized, and remembered the Lord in His death.
After the war, Johanna went back to visit Uncle Bas, but Aunt Jo sadly told her that he had been put in jail, and then shot, because of his love for the Jews. Johanna thought, “Isn’t that just like the Lord Jesus who died in our place. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Uncle Bas died for me, so that I could go free.”
The Lord Jesus left His throne of glory to die for you and me, who were His enemies. We were far from God, dead in trespasses and in sins. But in His great love and pity the Lord came to die for us so that He could bring us back to Himself. Oh, what love!
(To Be Continued)
ML-02/28/1971