Love is Winning: Corrie Ten Boom

Into the great darkness of World War II, God used several people to shine the redemptive light of his love and hope.  WWII was a time when it seemed to many that God’s love would not win.  It seemed that God had forgotten about his promises and had lost control of his world.  But, just like so many times throughout history, God’s love could not be defeated and his plan to bring about renewal and restoration based on the death and resurrection of Jesus would not be stopped.

Corrie Ten Boom and her family lived in the Netherlands while it was occupied by Nazi troops.  The Nazis were cruel and ruthless toward anyone who was weak, handicapped, or of a different race than they.  They were especially cruel toward the Jewish people.  Corrie’s family believed that God’s love was stronger than Hitler’s hate.  They believed they had to do something to show that God’s love is winning, even if it meant their lives being changed for the worse.

In 1944, their lives got very hard.  They had made a secret room in their home called the “hiding place.”  In this room they were able to hide Jews and other persecuted people.  Many miracles allowed them to provide food for several people hiding from the Nazis.  God was using them to show his love to the truly desperate.  However, this all changed when one of their neighbors informed the secret police about what the Ten Boom’s were doing.

Their home was raided, and the Ten Boom’s were arrested.  The ”hiding place” was not in vain, however, as 6 people were able to hide in the secret room and were saved from certain death and torture.  Nevertheless, Corrie and her family were arrested and taken away to concentration camps.  Thankfully, her mother and two of her sisters were released.  However, Corrie, her father, and her sister, Betsie, were sent on to the camps.

Corrie’s dad died 10 days later.  Corrie and Betsie were sent on to one of the worst camps of WWII, Ravensbruk.  Here, they were treated horribly, starved, and made to work long hard labor in filthy conditions.  Betsie died several months into their stay at Ravensbruk due to the harsh treatment and beatings she received, but not before she was able to tell Corrie this amazing truth:

     There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.

Corrie had a hard time accepting this.  She wanted to hate her enemies.  She wanted to lash out at them and get revenge for what they had done to her and to her family and to all the weak and innocent people she had given her life to protect.  However, the message of her sister and the Holy Spirit speaking to her heart through the Bible she had snuck into the camp worked its way into her heart. 

Slowly, she was able to love.  Love, even her enemies. Love, even the guards that were responsible for her pain and her sister’s death. 

Several years after Corrie was released from the concentration camp due to a paperwork ”accident” (God’s miracle), she came face to face with a Nazi guard who wanted her forgiveness.  He was one of the cruelest guards, and as he approached her, she prayed that God would enable her to forgive rather than hate.  Here’s what she said of the moment they met:

For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

God answered her prayer. She was able to forgive.

After her release, Corrie did not stop showing the world and those suffering from evil God’s love.  After the war, although she had undergone incredible suffering at the hands of the Nazis herself, she opened a rehabilitation facility for people who had survived the concentration camps and needed healing, counseling, help, and love.

She wrote that in her post-war experience with other victims of Nazi brutality, it was those who were able to forgive who were best able to rebuild their lives.

By the grace and help of God, Corrie Ten Boom and her family sacrificed their comfort, safety, health, and even their very lives for the sake of God’s love.  They showed to many that had lost hope in the midst of incredible darkness that God’s Love is Winning.  I can’t wait to meet them in heaven!

Check out this interview with Corrie a few years before she died.  You’ll be blown away by her stories of Jesus’ love and faithfulness!

Which story or statement that Corrie makes in this video do you never want to forget?  Comment on this blog and let us know so that we can be encouraged by it as well.

Also, if you thought this post was inspiring and you want to show others how God’s love wins, press the facebook  button at the bottom of this blog to share it with those you know.

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