The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and uitsmijter
The recipe…bread, cheese, and eggs. Very easy. My husband actually eats this for breakfast all the time. I always find it interesting that many countries share very similar recipes to what we eat each day.
Recipe link: https://www.thedutchtable.com/2011/04/uitsmijter-ham-cheese-and-egg-sandwich.html
The book…It seems that I may be one of very few who has never read this book. Since Christmas, I have read three books about the Dutch Resistance during WW2, all unplanned. I believe this book should be a required reading for everyone in our country right now. Many ask if the year 2020 can get any worse. The answer is yes! When you reflect on past history, you tend to realize that what we may consider a “dark time” right now isn’t anything to what many experienced before us. We watched a Ken Burns episode last night about the Dust Bowl…ten years of suffering – Great Depression, Dust Bowl, invasion of grasshoppers, WWII. Ten years! Or what about Corrie Ten Boom – arrested for helping save Jews during the Dutch Occupation, losing her father and sister in the concentration camps with herself saved from the gas chamber by a clerical error. How much sadness and resentment do you think she was justified to? A lot! But what did she do? Forgive. Not only during her ordeal but afterwards, she talked at every opportunity about God’s sovereignty. She said, “In darkness God’s truth shines most clear.” I found an article where she discusses her meeting one of the SS guards during one of her speaking events (this story is also in her book). He confessed to her he had become a Christian. When he reached out his hand to shake hers, she couldn’t do it…until she said a prayer that Jesus would help her forgive this man. She was able to forgive. Later, Christian friends portrayed her in something. She mentioned forgiving these former friends should be easy compared to the SS guard but it wasn’t. She says forgiveness is an act of the will – not an emotion. How many times have you been hurt and allowed bitterness and resentment to grow each day? Maybe you are struggling with something, growing bitter and resentful, and the action was not directed personally at you (speaking to myself on this one)? True forgiveness is finding peace and being able to move on. Read the article to see more on her discussion on forgiveness: https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/positive-living/guideposts-classics-corrie-ten-boom-on-forgiveness.
One part of the book that stands out is when she and her sister thanked God for the fleas in the bunker – fleas! Betsy, Corrie’s sister, told Corrie that they should give thanks for everything, even if that includes fleas. Have any of us thanked God for Covid-19? I know I haven’t. Later, Betsy and Corrie found out that the reason they never had any guards in their bunker (which gave them peace and allowed them to minister to others) was due to the fleas! The fleas kept them away!
There is much anger and resentment and divisiveness right now in our country. I believe we all need to look to Corrie Ten Boom’s faith during this pivotal moment in her life, how what “man meant for evil, God meant for good” (Genesis 50:20). She said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.”
“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness anymore 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.” – Corrie Ten Boom on forgiving the SS guard
