Dalli Dalli - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
John 16:22

Dalli Dalli
That was the name of Hans Rosenthal’s quiz show in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. With it, he wanted to bring joy to people: those sitting in front of the TV screen and cheering for the contestants – but especially needy families whom he could support through the donations collected from his show.

Rosenthal (1925–1987) wanted to give joy – because as a child he only knew fear, the fear of being discovered. This was because he was Jewish, and almost his entire family perished in the gas chambers of the Nazis. He survived because a friend of his Jewish grandmother hid him in her garden shed, a shack, a former chicken coop. There, in four square meters, he survived the Holocaust.

“Dalli” (meaning quickly) was what the guards in the concentration camps called out when a new train of prisoners arrived and a decision between life and death was made; and “Dalli Dalli” was the show with which Hans Rosenthal wanted to make people happy, even those who might have reported him and betrayed him during the war, and who were now cheering for him.

From him, my thoughts turn to someone much greater, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as a child, they wanted to kill Him; 33 years later, He died on the cross. By whose hands? By the hands of those whom He wanted to bless abundantly. He wanted to save, wanted to forgive sins. For that, He had to suffer and die. He was willing to do this because He saw the joy that would follow: the joy of people who would feel eternally secure with God – and His own joy that He would have these people with Him forever.

Today’s reading: Leviticus 25:20-38 · Psalms 70:1-5