And so he waited. Through the ever growing food lines and the ever shrinking food rations; the bleak, dreary, freezing winters; the lonely, seemingly interminable vigil, shared only with his mother, as they watched and wondered if Hans’ father would ever return; the long weeks in an impersonal government-run hospital as the frightened, lonely little boy lay on his back, being treated for scurvy while his mother sat at his side, praying and singing….

Then, finally, it was over. The war had ended, and Hans’ father came home. But life in post-World War I Germany was still very hard. A sister and two brothers were soon added to the family. As the oldest child, Hans had to grow up quickly, accept responsibility, and get on with taking care of himself. By the time he was eighteen, he had left home, traveling thousands of miles alone, across the ocean from his native Germany to America, where he hoped to make his fortune and finally realize those better days his mother’s songs had promised.

The long and difficult ocean voyage drew to a close, and the stifling, overcrowded ship steamed into the harbor past the Statue of Liberty with her arm upraised in welcome, but it was 1929. Instead of better times, Hans had arrived in the “promised land” just in time for the Great Depression. And so, once again, he found himself fighting for survival. Only this time his mother wasn’t there to sing him to sleep. This time, with few skills and only a slight command of the English language, he was alone in his hardships, with no one to ease the pain and fear that threatened to envelop him. Soon his childlike heart had become hardened, the soothing, faith-building songs of his boyhood forgotten as cynicism set in and he learned to rely only on himself.

And yet, Hans survived. After one failed marriage, producing two sons he seldom saw, he married again and raised three more children, working two jobs most of his adult life in order to give his loved ones what he himself had lacked as a boy. In addition, after faithfully serving his new homeland in World War II, he managed to scrape together enough money to bring the remainder of his family from Germany to America so they too might start a new life. But each time his now-widowed mother or his wife and children — and even his grandchildren — attempted to speak to him of God’s love, he would have none of it. If there was a God at all, he argued, the Almighty Deity cared nothing for him; therefore, Hans would return the lack of caring and go on with his life without any help from God or His empty promises.