"SO YOU WON'T BE AFRAID"
In one of the Nazi death camps, Solomon Rosenberg lived and suffered with his family. It was a work camp, which meant a person had value and stayed out of the ovens as long as he or she could work. Solomon’s parents, aged and broken, were already gone. Now he feared his youngest son David would be next, because he was slightly crippled and able to work less and less. Solomon returned every night to the barracks with fear and trembling wondering if this had been the day the unthinkable had happened. So each night, upon his return, his eyes quickly searched for David, his wife, and his oldest son, Jacob.
Then came the night he feared--as his eyes darted around the room he saw none of his family. So he frantically searched again, and then saw Jacob hunched over and weeping. He hurried to Jacob and said, "Son, tell me it isn’t so. Did they take David today?"
"Yes, Papa – today they came to take David. They said he could no longer do his work."
"But," said Solomon, "where is Mama? She still is strong. Surely they wouldn’t have taken Mama too?"
Jacob now looked at his father through tearful eyes and said, "Papa. Papa. When they came to take David, he was afraid. And he cried. And so Mama said to David, 'Don’t cry David. I will go with you and hold you close.'" So Mama went with David, so David wouldn’t be afraid.
So, in Jesus, God goes with us, God suffers and dies with us. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ...I will fear no evil… for you are with me."