Have you ever narrowly escaped disaster—like when that car in the opposite lane was heading straight toward you, but then swerved to the shoulder at the last second? Or when you almost fell down the stairs, but were just barely able to grab onto the handrail? Our friend Pastor Martin Benhöfer (pictured) of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK—the sister church of the LCMS) recently invited me up to North Germany to give missionary presentations and preach at three churches in Lower Saxony, southeast of Hamburg. I was very grateful for the opportunity to preach and teach in German. Pr. Benhöfer once pastored one of them—Christ Church in the village of Molzen. We arrived about thirty minutes before the service. Getting out of the car, he said, “Look up at the steeple. Notice anything?” It was a beautiful traditional brick edifice, typical of the late 19th century. I craned my neck and saw that the steeple was crowned with a shiny gold cross. Glancing further down, however, something struck my eye: a Star of David in the brickwork. This is a key symbol of the Old Testament, named after King David—a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 ESV) and even a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ. But what Pastor Benhöfer was pointing out was that this particular Star of David survived twelve years of Nazi rule—even though Jewish symbols all over the country were systematically demolished from the late 1930s on. “That’s an absolute miracle! How come it wasn’t destroyed by the Nazis?” I asked. “No one really knows,” he replied. “Maybe this little church ‘flew under the radar’ because it was out in the country. It is indeed amazing that the Star was preserved.” Yet whatever human circumstances our Lord used, He held His hand of protection over this particular house of His—Christ Church. In the same way, He holds His hand of protection over you and all baptized believers—ultimately safely guiding us into His Kingdom when our time here is complete. After all, “The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV).
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