Sunday, March 9

Psalm 32

7 You are a hiding-place for me;
   you preserve me from trouble;
   you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.

I remember reading lots of books when I was growing up, but one that especially touched me was Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place that told the story of how she lived through the Nazi occupation of her homeland, how she was caught helping Jews and sent to the Ravensbruck camp, and how she survived it all by relying on her faith in God.  I was only 11 or 12 when my older cousin, Sherry, gave it to me to read.  She told me it was a great book about a woman and her faith.  I dove right in and the first part of the book that set the scene with background seemed so tedious, but I plodded through. I knew from reading the excerpt on the back of the book that there were important things to be read in this text.

Even more than 30 years later, I remember being so proud of what Corrie and her family did to help Jews in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.  I also remember that her father called the Jews they were saving the “watches in the closet.” I remember the characters in the book—Papa, Mama, Betsie, Willem and her aunts—and what a loving family they had. In addition, I remember thinking, why were the Germans so awful to the Jews?  Weren’t they just people, too?  It was my first encounter with just how cruel man can be to his fellow man.

This verse from the Psalms helps me to remember that is ever present even in the darkest of our days—as the Ravensbruck camp was for Corrie.  Although her sister died in the concentration camp, Corrie drew on her faith and the goodness she saw in others.  She went on to run a church for disabled people, adopt foster children, and more; but her faith in Christ’s gospel and her ability to forgive shows us just how God preserves us all from trouble and surrounds us with cries of glad deliverance.