Thriving on God’s Meal Plan

I was blessed to have a mother who loved God and was faithful to Him even in the most unfavorable circumstances.

She, like Daniel in the Bible, took God at His word.

At seventeen, she was captured by the Nazis, along with thousands of other Ukrainian young people, to work in German work camps.

Unlike Daniel’s being placed in a royal court, though, my mother was consigned to a labor camp. Like Daniel, she made a commitment to God that she would obey all His commandments. Therefore, she kept Sabbath holy by not working on that day. The commanding officers determined to ship her to a concentration camp as punishment. However, God intervened, and Mother was sent to work for a nearby farmer’s family. Mother had been nearly starving at the labor camp because she wouldn’t eat the biblically unclean meats that were provided, such as horsemeat.

She hoped she would have food to eat at the farm.

However, she soon learned the farmer’s family ate mostly pork, so she went hungry there too. She was assigned to care for the cattle.

However, the farmer’s wife made it very clear Mother was not to drink any of the milk. Mother was aware of the woman often spying on her though Mother had resolved not to dishonor God by stealing even a few drops of milk.

Among her other taxing responsibilities, Mother had to chop fodder for the cattle to eat: kohlrabi, turnips, rutabagas, beets.

Wait —no one had ordered her not to eat what the cows ate! So, like Daniel and his God-honoring friends (Daniel 1:8–16), Mother began eating raw vegetables. Summer came. One day in the pasture cutting hay, she discovered rose hips and began to eat them by the handful. Earlier, before being taken captive by the Nazis, Mother had been having some health issues even at her young age.

But her diet of water, raw vegetables, and rose hips helped her body become strong and healthy again. Mother lived to be ninety-four! God will also bless our faithfulness and obedience —in all circumstances— when we choose to abide by His health laws. And His reward for our doing so will last into eternity.

Galina Gritsuk