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Even in the darkest moments, light casts out all fear. Corrie ten Boom showed Jesus’ light in the darkness for many people. Corrie’s devoutly Christian family saw World War II as a way to spread Jesus’ love to everyone they could, even when it meant risking their lives.
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The family is well-known throughout many countries as some of the bravest people who fought against the reign of Nazi terror on the Jews and others in Holland.
The History of the ten Booms
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The ten Boom family home, or the Beje house, became a refuge for Jews seeking shelter during World War II. The ten Booms worked quickly to make a secret room attached to Corrie’s bedroom. It held up to six people at one time. The family ran drills regularly to ensure that if any danger came, they could hide their guests immediately. 800 people are estimated to have passed through the ten Boom house.
On February 28, 1944, the Nazis were tipped off to the ten Booms’ involvement in the resistance. The house was raided and Corrie and her family were captured, but none of the six people hiding in the secret room were found. Two double agent Dutch policemen were assigned to the house after the ten Booms were captured. They ran to the hiding place and liberated the six Jews who had been hiding in silence for almost 48 hours.
Corrie was held in solitary confinement for three months until she and her sister, Betsie, were sent to the Herzogenbush political concentration camp, then Ravensbrück. Betsie died on December 16, 1944, due to the inhumane conditions in the camp. Fifteen days after Betsie’s death, Corrie was released from Ravensbrück due to a clerical error. She later discovered that shortly after she was liberated from the camp, all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers.
Liberation
Once the war was over, ten Boom created a rehabilitation center for both concentration camp survivors and former Nazi collaborators.
Ten Boom has spoken in over 60 countries to advocate for healing and forgiveness. Her faith in God and the gospel never wavered and she even managed to bring a Bible into the concentration camps with her.
The ten Boom house has since become a museum that is “a living memorial to this family who lived as Christians through their obedience to God and experienced His grace every day.”
Corrie ten Boom has written many books detailing her experience and faith, the most popular being The Hiding Place, which tells the entire story of her family, their faith, and the grace of God.
Today, we want to not only share Corrie’s brilliant and miraculous story, but we also want to share parts of her wisdom. She was a proficient writer who spoke with clarity about one of the most horrific time periods in history.
On Faith
“Our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of him.”
“Don’t bother to give God instructions, just report for duty.”
“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”
On Trust
“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”
“Jesus did not promise to change the circumstances around us. He promised great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things.”
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
On Worrying
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength — carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
“Don’t worry about what you do not understand … worry about what you do understand in the Bible, but do not live by.”
“Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.”
On Love
“Love is larger than the walls which shut it in.”
“Do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.”
-Quote credited to Casper ten Boom in The Hiding Place
“We must mirror God’s love in the midst of a world of hatred. We are the mirrors of God’s love, so we must show Jesus by our lives.”
On Forgiveness
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“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.”
“Forgiveness is an action of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”
“Forgiveness is setting the prisoner free, only to find out that prisoner was me.”
Have you heard of Corrie ten Boom before? Which quote is your favorite? Comment below!
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