Corrie ten Boom wrote of her family’s part in the Dutch resistance movement during World War II in her book, “The Hiding Place” that was later made into a movie. Her family and others with the resistance helped hide their Jewish neighbors in her father’s watch shop from the Nazi forces. Despite their arrest, the ten Booms had hidden six Jews in their home who were not discovered.
Corrie and her sister Betsie were first taken to Scheveningen prison and then to the worst concentration camp, Ravensbrück. Betsie lifted Corrie up by showing her where God was intervening on their behalf even there. She showed Corrie how to live with a kingdom focus. She pointed out: 1. The sisters were together in the camp. 2. No one searched them and found their Bible when they were taken into the camp. And 3. Thanks to lice, the guards stayed out of their work and sleep area. Betsie and Corrie would read to the other women from the Bible and minister to them. Betsie taught Corrie what it looked like to live out 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I remember reading “The Hiding Place” during my high school years and watching the movie. I would return to the story in my mid-20s when I created a course for first-year college writing around the theme “The Self as Other” at Kent State University. At 51, I admire Corrie and her sister even more as the resilient women of faith they were and became. Corrie survived horrific circumstances and her faith grew and thrived despite trauma. God used these women just like He used Paul while he was imprisoned. What prison had been for Paul, the concentration camp became for the sisters: a ripe field for ministry. They were modern-day disciples for Jesus Christ.
Corrie’s sister and father died while imprisoned in the concentration camp. She survived to continue the ministry she started with Betsie. She wrote The Hiding Place and other works to share truth from God’s word, His faithful promises, by drawing from the deep well of painful memories from her time alongside Betsie. She shared timeless truths with her readers while thrilling this believer’s heart with memories of God’s provision, protection, peace, and strength that sustained her at the camp and beyond in her missionary work.
Editors working on this devotional pulled from various passages in Corrie’s writing to supply daily food for thought to meditate on throughout the day. Her stories reminded me of a theme that’s resonated in other nonfiction works I read in the last few years of this pandemic: God wastes nothing. He uses everything to grow us into who He made us to be, to give us victory and Him the glory.
I loved the prayers included at the end of each devotional that could have been written by Corrie herself. This book would make a great gift to give friends and family. It belongs alongside Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, and others as perpetually resource. I had the thought: “Susan, you might want to buy and leave this book in a waiting room. That way it will reach the next person.” Corrie’s words will continue to reach the next generation of people God has in mind to become transformed by His word into the person He created them to be. Thank you, Netgalley and Bethany House, Chosen Books for allowing me to read a free e-book in exchange for my honest review. To buy a copy of this book, go to here or here. #GodIsMyHidingPlace #NetGalley
The Waiting Room 