Don't run ahead of Him!

I have not read "The Hiding Place" since I was a teenager. My most vivid memories are of the movie. As I re-read the story of Corrie & Betsie Ten Boom, I was moved by what a relatively small portion of the book is actually centered around their stay in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The vivid images captured by the movie (at least in my young mind) seemed to revolve almost exclusively around their experiences at Ravensbruck.

The lessons that Corrie and her sister, Betsie, learned as young adults and beyond - BEFORE they were arrested - are what struck me so vividly during this re-reading. I want to share with you one such lesson.

Corrie had been confronted with the reality of death when she accompanied her mother on a visit to a "poor" family who had just lost a baby. I will quote from chapter 2, "It was strange that a society which hid the facts of sex from children made no effort to shield them from death. I stood staring at the tiny unmoving form with my heart thudding strangely against my ribs...At last I put one finger on the small curled hand. It was cold. Cold as we walked back to the Beje (her home), cold as I washed for supper, cold even in the snug gas-lit dining room. Between me and each familiar face around the table crept those small icy fingers. For all Tante Jan's talk about it, death had been only a word. Now I knew that it could really happen - if to the baby, then to Mama, to Father, to Betsie! Still shivering with that cold, I followed Nollie (another sister) up to our room and crept into bed beside her. At last we heard Father's footsteps winding up the stairs. It was the best moment in every day, when he came up to tuck us in. We never fell asleep until he had arranged the blankets in his special way and laid his hand for a moment on each head. Then we tried not to move even a toe.

But that night as he stepped through the door I burst into tears. "I need you!" I sobbed. "You can't die! You can't!" Beside me on the bed Nollie sat up. "We went to see Mrs. Hoog," she explained. "Corrie didn't eat her supper or anything." Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam - when do I give you your ticket?" I sniffed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train." "Exactly. And our wise Father in Heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need - just in time."

Wow and ouch!