“Help me, Jesus,” he prayed softly. “I can’t do this without You.”
He pushed to his feet, and as he did so, something below caught his attention. It looked like nothing more than another snowdrift. Yet it seemed oddly out of place. He took a cautious step closer to the ridge. Reflected sunlight blinded him. Reflexively, he covered his eyes. When his vision cleared, he looked again. His heart nearly stopped.
It was his truck. Half buried in snow, but his truck all the same.
“Thank You, Father,” he whispered. “Thank You.”
Karen dreamed of Dusty. She dreamed she could hear his voice calling her name. It was a sweet sound in her ears.
She wished she could have told him about Jesus. That she had found Him. That she’d finally understood the love He had for her. That she’d been born again into the family of believers. She wished she’d had one more opportunity to tell Dusty she loved him.
“Karen! Karen, are you all right?”
His voice seemed so real to her. So close.
“Karen!”
Struggling to return from her half-conscious state, she managed at last to open her eyes.
“Karen, can you move? Are you hurt?”
“Dusty?”
She wasn’t dreaming. It was him. He was here, right outside the truck.
“Dusty.” She raised her arm, as if to touch him. She had so much to tell him.
“Don’t be afraid,” he called to her. “Are you hurt?” “No. Just stiff and cold.”
“Can you reach the handle and roll down the window?” “I think so.”
Dusty’s gaze never wavered from hers. When the window was open, he said, “I’ve been looking for you.” He sounded as if there was nothing more important happening than telling her that.
She smiled in response, loving him so. And then she saw how precarious was his own position, and her smile vanished. His feet were planted against the rocky side of the steep cliff. He held on to the end of a rope—the very end—with his bare left hand.
Her heart fluttered; her peace fractured. “Maybe you should go for help. You could fall. I’ll be all right until you get back.”
“No.” His answer was firm. “I’m taking you home with me.” He stretched out his right arm. “Take my hand, Karen.”
It matters only that we obey, Esther had written in her diary, and Karen knew that was what the Lord was telling her now.
She reached up. Their fingertips met, then curled like two fishhooks snagged together. No, not like a fishhook. More like an anchor. They were anchored in Christ.
Those were the longest minutes of Dusty’s life, those minutes it took them to work their way up the side of that cliff. If not for the promise God had spoken to his heart, he might have despaired. He might have given in to fear. Instead, he clung stubbornly to the promise that they would be happy and it would be well with them.
He wasn’t letting go.
He wasn’t giving up.
Because God was greater than the snow and ice. God was greater than the mountain. God was greater than anything and everything, and by His strength and His alone, Dusty knew they would prevail.
Finally, he dragged Karen over the lip of the canyon rim, and they collapsed side by side on the snowy ground, gasping for breath. For the longest time, they lay there, staring upward. Dusty silently thanked God, too winded to do so aloud.
At long last, Karen spoke. “Dusty.”
“Yeah?”
“That was a crazy thing to do. You should have gone for more help.”
“I had help.”
“You could have fallen.” She rolled onto her side, facing him. “You could have been killed.”
He met her gaze. “Not this time,” he said with quiet assurance. Tears shimmered in her eyes.
He touched her cheek. “But I’d be willing to die for you, if that’s what was asked of me.”
“I learned something while I was down there.”
“What, Karen?”
“Someone did die for me.”
He pulled her into his arms, drawing her close, looking deep into her eyes.
“Jesus already died for me.”
Rejoicing burst forth in his heart as understanding dawned. “All you have to do is love me, Dusty.” A tremulous smile curved her lips. “Just love me.”
Wednesday, October 13, 1943
Dear Diary,
Tomorrow, the Abrams will leave my home, and I know now what I must do. I will send Rose with them to Sweden. I must stay and do what I can to help others.
It has been more than three years since Grandfather Fritz died, but I can still hear his last words to me. “Remember this. Esther never faltered, Esther fulfilled her destiny, serving where she was planted. Remember it always, Esther. Remember.”
I could not imagine then what he meant. Now I know, for I have found it in God’s Word. In the Old Testament, the book of Esther.
Like me, Esther was in captivity. God put her in a place where He could use her. And the day came when she had to defy the law of the land in order to save her people, the Jews, whom the wicked Haman sought to wipe out. And Esther’s uncle Mordecai, who knew of the evil plan, said to her, “And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
And so I must do whatever I can to help. I am only one person, a woman, young, and a foreigner who speaks the language but poorly. Yet, God has shown me I am to do what He calls me to do, and whether it is a lofty deed or a lowly one, it matters only that I obey.
I cannot turn away and do nothing. If this is the destiny God has called me to, then I will follow Him wherever He takes me.
I do not know the reason God brought me to Denmark, but perhaps it was simply to be here, like Esther of the Bible, for such a time as this.
“And if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Readers:
Although I didn’t go into detail regarding World War II and the Holocaust in Whispers from Yesterday, I would be remiss if I failed to explain why I chose to set the diary portion of the book in Denmark.
The Holocaust is only one in a long list of horrific examples of man’s inhumanity to man. Nearly six million Jews (as well as others who did not meet Hitler’s ideal Aryan specifications) died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators.
But in the midst of this unimaginable horror, acts of tremendous courage were performed by ordinary citizens throughout Europe. Some acted as individuals, some as part of an organized Resistance Movement. Some carefully planned the actions they would take, others acted spontaneously as opportunity presented itself. Regardless of the success of their acts, these people were and are heroes who should be remembered.
Several countries in Eastern Europe saw over 80 percent of their Jewish population exterminated. Such statistics make all the more noteworthy the rescue of approximately 95 percent of Danish Jews by the Danish citizenry while the country was occupied by the Germans.
The Danes have a history of religious tolerance, and the political leaders dismissed the idea of special treatment for Jews with, “We have no Jewish problem. We have only Danes.” Popular legend says King Christian X, in protest, wore a yellow star while riding his horse on the streets of Copenhagen. While that may be only legend, the following is true:
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah (September 30) 1943, the Germans disconnected telephones and raided Jewish homes throughout Denmark. Thankfully, few Jewish families were in their homes. The Resistance Movement had obtained advance information and had passed the word. Danish citizens, indignant and determined, hid their Jewish friends and neighbors that night, and over the next few weeks, more than 7,200 Jews escaped across the Øresund to Sweden. Only 474 fell into Gestapo hands, and the majority of those captured survived the war in the German concentration camp Theresienstadt.
As I researched both this and other acts of courage from the Holocaust, I prayed that I would be prepared to behave with equal courage if it were
required of me. I hope I will never have to find out.
But no matter what the future brings, I find comfort in the words of Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Robin Lee Hatcher
www.robinleehatcher.com
To learn more about acts of courage during the Holocaust, I recommend the following:
Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman. Anchor Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, ISBN 0–385–42028–5.
The Giant-Killers: The Story of the Danish Resistance Movement, 1940–1945 by John Oram Thomas. Taplinger Publishing Group, ISBN 0–8008–3258–2.
Heroes of the Holocaust: Extraordinary True Accounts of Triumph by Arnold Geier. Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 0–425–16029–7.
The Hidden Children by Howard Greenfeld. Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0–395–86138–1.
Miracle at Midnight, a true story of one Danish family’s moral courage, starring Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow. Walt Disney Home Video, ISBN 0–7888–1350–1.
Praise for Robin Lee Hatcher’s
Whispers from Yesterday:
Winner of the 2000 Christy Award
for Excellence in Christian Fiction;
Finalist for the 2000 RITA Award
for Best Inspirational Romance
Whispers from Yesterday moved me to tears, again and again. How like Karen I once was … and how like Esther I long to be! This remarkable love story glows with the light of truth and grace. Another winner for Robin Lee Hatcher. I loved it!
Liz Curtis Higgs, bestselling author
Through her grandmother’s help, some troubled juveniles, and the diaries of Sophias sister, Karen learns about herself, the Lord, and how to turn her life around. This engrossing book has a well-developed plot and believable characters.
CBA Marketplace
ALSO BY ROBIN LEE HATCHER
THE SISTERS OF BETHLEHEM SPRINGS SERIES
A Vote of Confidence
Fit to Be Tied
A Matter of Character
THE COMING TO AMERICA SERIES
Dear Lady
Patterns of Love
In His Arms
Promised to Me
WHERE THE HEART LIVES SERIES
Belonging
When Love Blooms
A Carol for Christmas
Return to Me
Loving Libby
Wagered Heart
The Perfect Life
Home to Hart’s Crossing
The Victory Club
Beyond the Shadows
Catching Katie
The Forgiving Hour
Whispers from Yesterday
The Shepherd’s Voice
Ribbon of Years
Firstborn
ZONDERVAN
Whispers from Yesterday
Copyright © 1999 by Robin Lee Hatcher
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