Lessons from Corrie Ten Boom's Family
Do Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly
“Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.“ — Solzhenitsyn
It’s 2023 and we live in a nation that has many of us asking the questions: Why are we in this mess? What has happened to our country?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and many others in his day asked the same questions of their time. After spending a half century studying communism and what had happened to his homeland in the 20th century, Solzhenitsyn said that he had concluded, indeed, “Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.”
We certainly can see the dehumanization and devaluing of humanity and hatred of God all around us. From abortion to gender mutilation to escalating crime and terrorism and the increase control and abuses of the totalitarian state, the hatred of humanity reveals a cancerous rebellion against Creator God and what He made and what He values. Humans are made in the image of God. We value and protect life because our Creator places a unique value and love on us as His creation. Lest we think the ills in our culture are all brand new, history tells us the stories of evil men and regimes, of tyranny and suffering but history also tells us the stories of the sometimes very few good and faithful men and woman who stood against the tides of oppressive tyranny sometimes not even living to see the good triumphing over evil but knowing it would.
One such story God has used to encourage my faith is that of the Ten Boom Family. If you have not read the book, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, within the last 3 years, I would highly encourage you to pick it back up and reread it in light of what is going on in our culture today. (There is a great audio version available.) The contrast between our times and 1940s Haarlem, Holland has grown steadily closer compared to the first time I read the book.
Corrie tells the story of her family’s persecution at the hands of the Nazis but she also tells the story of the overwhelming love of Jesus and beauty found in service to Christ during trying times. No matter the deepest, darkest pit, God is deeper still. His love for us is incomprehensible.
Because Jesus loves us, we love others. This family modeled the courage to love and rescue those who the government deemed unlovable and worthless and illegal. They used what they had in service to Jesus — their home, their food, their possessions. Their hospitality saved many lives!
Corrie tells this poignant story of a Jewish mother and her newborn baby whose lives were in danger and needed to be housed away from the town. Corrie and Betsie were talking about finding this mother and babe a safer place to stay. Corrie says,
“We would need a place for them far removed from other houses. And the very next morning, into the shop walked the perfect solution. He was a clergyman friend of ours- pastor in a small town outside of Harlem and his home was set back from the street in a large wooded park.
“Good Morning, Pastor!” I said, the pieces of the puzzle falling together in my mind. “Can we help you?” I looked at the watch he had brought in for repair it required a very hard to find spare part.
“But for you, Pastor, we will do our very best and now I have something I want to confess.”
The pastor's eyes clouded. “Confess.”
I drew him out the back door of the shop and up the stairs to the dining room. “I confess that I too am searching for something.”
The pastor's face was now wrinkled with a frown.
“Would you be willing to take a Jewish mother and her baby into your home? They will almost certainly be arrested otherwise.”
Color drained from the man's face. He took a step back from me.
“Ms. Ten Boom! I do hope you're not involved with any of this illegal concealment and undercover business. It's just not safe. Think of your father and your sister. She's never been strong!”, said the pastor.
On impulse, I told the pastor to wait and ran upstairs. Betsy had put the new comers in Willem’s old room the farthest from windows on the street. I asked her mother's permission to borrow the infant. The little thing weighed hardly anything in my arms. Back in the dining room, I pulled back a coverlet from the baby's face. There was a long silence. The man bent forward, his hand in spite of himself reaching for the tiny fist curled around the blanket. For a moment I saw compassion and fear struggle in his face.
Then he straightened, “No, definitely not! We could lose our lives for that Jewish child!”
Unseen by either of us, Father had appeared in the doorway.
“Give the child to me, Corrie.” he said. Father held the baby close his white beard brushing his cheek, looking into the little face with eyes as blue and innocent as the baby's own. At last he looked up at the pastor, You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family. “
The pastor turned sharply on his heels and walked out of the room.
Can we, like Casper, see through the lies and fear of the enemy? Can we do what is right even when it is hard? Or are we fearful cowards who turn on our heels and run to save our own skin?
“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? “ Micah 6:8
Christians who find themselves faced with decisions where fear and compassion struggle within them — Choose compassion over fear because God is compassion. Choose what the Lord requires of you: do justly, love mercy and walk humbly. Choose truth. The Ten Boom family story still profoundly speaks to us today. When others forgot God; they didn’t forget God. For generations the Ten boom family had been preparing their children and grandchildren to make choices to live in the truth no matter the cost. I’m thinking Casper, Corrie and the entire Ten Boom family along with their pastor friend are seeing this truth pretty clear now.
The price of cowardice will only be evil. We shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices. —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn