"You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word."
-Psalm 119:114
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For the last 48 hours, I've had the opportunity to read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.
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(sidenote: Ms. ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who, in the midst of WWII, worked as a leader in the underground mission to help Jews and other underground workers escape from the Nazis. She is also considered 'one of the most remarkable evangelists of the 20th century'. She and her family were arrested for their 'crimes' and she served a year in various prisons and concentration camps, her last in the infamous women extermination camp Ravensbruck in Germany. She was released a week before many were murdered due to a mistake in her paperwork and spent the rest of her life continuing to share her story about how 'there is no pit that God's love is not deeper still.')
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I've really loved the book for many reasons; because I think it's a good story, because it has a good message, because there are characters with which I an relate, because I enjoy reading personal accounts on historical events, because I enjoyed the language in which the book was written, but mostly because of the biblical truths that were evident throughout what should have been a horrible nightmare, but what was many people's gut wrenching reality.
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Because this book has so much that I want to blog about, I'm splitting it up into parts. Here are some summaries, passages, and reflections with more to follow.
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Corrie reflects on memories as a child of riding the train with her father every week. She and her father had a special relationship and this was a time where she could ask him whatever was bothering her and he would answer her patiently and with understanding. She recalls being at school and hearing a poem and not understanding the word 'sexsin'. She understood 'sex' meant your gender and 'sin' was something that made her aunt very mad, but couldn't understand the words together. So on the train to Amsterdam she innocently asks her father what 'sexsin' is. To her surprise he says nothing. No answer for a few minutes until he picks up the suitcase he had carried with him and asks Corrie to carry it for him. The suitcase is much to heavy for her to pick up.
"'Yes,' he said. 'And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.'"
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So many more times as the book goes on does she reference this example, constantly having to ask the Lord to bear the weight of the sights and experiences of the concentration camps.
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"It grew harder and harder. even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Every day something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy. Will You carry this too, Lord Jesus?"
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How many countless times do I struggle to pick up the heavy suitcase? How many times do I try stubbornly to carry what I was not meant to. Something I want to challenge myself to do is surrender.
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Trying to pick up the suitcase will do nothing but frustrate me, cause harm to me, defeat me. Relying on my own strength I will grow tired, grow weary, and I will constantly fail.
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If I was meant to carry the weight of the plans of my entire life before me, the Lord would have given me that understanding, but there are somethings that I must trust Him to carry for me until I am ready.
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If I was meant to carry the pain of death, and hurt, and wrong that is of this world, I would be given the strength to endure it without faltering. However, the Lord is willing and able to carry it for me. And He does when we allow.
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What a true lesson I haven't learned.
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He said to them: 'It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' -Acts 1:7-8
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Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom. -Isaiah 40:28
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Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which trancends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5-6
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Bee tea dubs. . .so much more to come. whew. this book. the Lord.
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