The Hiding Place

LOVE.

Opinion:
This book is very precious to me. The pages are rippled and waterlogged, the cover clings to the binding with a few very old and weak pieces of tape, and the first pages contain a sweet note from a longtime family friend. This book is well used. It's discolored sheets contain the words of loss, love, trial, forgiveness and faith. It is heart wrenching, informative, and inspiring.

Recommend: Yes
Read Again: 3 times, and counting






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Author: Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill

While many things I read seem to run right through me, here are some of the memories of this work that have stuck with me for years and years:

The book begins with Corrie peering at her lovely new dress in the mirror. Her family owns a lovely, quaint watch shop, above which they live and socialize. The first pages describe Corrie's joy at their celebrating the 100th birthday of the family shop; and although this 1937 celebration looms in the shadow of World War II and the rising power of Naziism, the ten Boom's reside in safe, neutral Holland.

"All through the short afternoon they kept coming, the people who counted themselves Father's friends. Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls—only to Father did it seem that they were all alike. That was Father's secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn't know they were there."

This little home is full of life with vibrant personalities of aunts, parents, siblings and friends all melting in and out of one another in a constant hum of the home. Yet, sadly, it isn't long until this happy haven is forced by Nazi invasion to become a hushed hideout.

"Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. "

The ten Booms join the Resistance Movement as they watch their humble home and the homes and lives of their neighbors and loved ones fall to pieces and bitter dust of the past. They drill night and day what they might do if the Nazis ever raided their home, or found the small group of refugees they kept hidden in their secret room. But while prayer and practice protected their secret stowaways, the Nazis arrest Corrie, her father, and her sister, Betsie.

After some moving around, Corrie and Betsie find themselves encamped together in the infamous Ravensbruck of East Germany.

"Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do. "

It's difficult to remember throughout the book that this woman and her sister are in their mid to late forties. They stand for hours, marching in the cold. They dig what seem to be only spoonfuls of dirt, and yet feel the weight of the words show how truly the weight of the world existed in their work.

"How often it is a small, almost unconscious event that makes a turning point."

Through faith, they experience many miracles. As Betsie becomes ill, losing more and more of her strength daily, Corrie miraculously watches their little bottle of vitamins last well beyond it's possible capacity. They remain humble and grateful in a place of evil and pain.

"And for all these people alike, the key to healing turned out to be the same. Each had a hurt he had to forgive."

Although some may fault this book for it's constant prevailing attitude of hope, it does not shirk in depicting the horrors of this time and place. This true story exhibits the hope and faith of two women who managed to love and forgive during a period of such hatred.

"Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself."

One of the most profound moments from this work which is full of inspirational messages, is when Betsie prayed and thanked God for the fleas. Her faith saw through the filth, and she thanked God for vermin. The fleas proved themselves to be a huge blessing in their lives. The Nazis refused to enter the sleeping quarters because of the infestation, allowing them to read their Bible and share messages of faith, hope, love and forgiveness.

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings. It's something we make inside ourselves."

Pages: 241