The Hiding Place

We watched “The Hiding Place” last night. This is the true story about Corrie Ten Boom and her family’s experience in a Nazi concentration camp. The Ten Boom’s were Christians in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. They hid Jews to help them escape the country. In the process they were caught and all of them died except Corrie. This is an incredible story. I watched it as a kid (on national television, no less, back in the day of three stations).

Corrie said, "There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still" and "God will give us the love to be able to forgive our enemies." I remember reading or hearing her talk about meeting one of the guards that was so cruel to her and her sister. She was afraid that she would not be able to do it and be forgiving. She talked about the grace and love God placed in her heart for this woman in the moment of need and she was able to love her. These are not quaint, romantic stories of Jesus that have no substance. This woman is the substance of her testimony.

Sunday morning Craig sang the special during the service, but before he sang he spoke of some trials at work and how while pitying himself his wife told him if all the stuff he talks about is not real he might as well spend the weekends at the lake. He said Father gives us opportunities to live out our faith. It reminds me of Elijah’s plea, “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (I Kings 18:21) Viktor Fankl, also a survivor of the Nazi death camps, said, “Such people forget that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.” (Man’s Search For Meaning, p. 93) It is only during these trials that we too become the substance of our faith.