He Knew Me All Along

By Christian Scheel​

Christian presented this devotion before a Northbrook Student Compass Team meeting, our steering committee for youth group. Having experienced God’s compassion firsthand, he’s inspired to volunteer with the youth group—to help them discover God’s love too.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

Unlike those of you here, I didn’t grow up going to church. What’s odd about that is my father was a seminary drop-out, so you’d think someone who at least attempted to get into ministry would raise his children in the church. But that didn’t happen.

Although I didn’t grow up going to church, I did believe in God. I just didn’t know Him
and to be honest, I wasn’t sure He knew me.

Years later, after I married my wife Tiffany, who had grown up in the Methodist church, she started taking me to church. I was reluctant at first because I felt like an outsider, I didn’t understand the ritual of worship and certainly didn’t know the prayers and doxologies. I was afraid I would be made fun of or judged because I didn’t know what everyone else seemed to know.

That all changed when we had our first daughter, Allie. She was 7 weeks early, weighed
2lbs 6oz, and spent 5 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. At the same time, we had just moved into our new home, we hadn’t sold our previous house, and I got laid off from my job. All of this happened in the span of two weeks.

Allie was our little miracle. She was perfectly healthy, just tiny, which in her circumstances is somewhat unusual. We did however have other concerns. We had two mortgages, I didn’t have a job, and because Allie was so small we committed to having one of us stay home with Allie until we felt she was big enough for pre-school.

Since I didn’t have a job and Tiffany did, I stayed home. This lasted for two years. Money was really tight. It took us months to sell our other house, and we had cut our income in half. It seemed that every month we were on the verge of financial collapse. But here’s where it gets interesting. When we finally sold our old house, we were able to take some of that profit to help with the bills. Once that ran out and things began to look dire, money would show up out of nowhere. We got a huge tax refund I can’t explain that helped us for a couple of months. Then Tiffany got a once in a career award from her company that came with a big cash bonus. A couple of times I had former work colleagues call me from out of the blue to offer me a few weeks of work. Every time we were in financial need, money would appear. God was providing for us. I think He was performing miracles in our lives.

The reason I share this is to reassure you that God knows you, He knows what you need in your life and will provide for you, and that He does indeed perform miracles. This experience opened my eyes to Him and proved to me that even a man who didn’t grow up in relationship with God, I was indeed claimed by God as his child. He made his presence known to me through His acts of love and grace. I learned that even with all of my flaws, my lack of biblical knowledge, and even a shaky relationship with Him, I am worthy of His love. Surely, He will do the same for you.

Christian Scheel
Northbrook Students Volunteer