How to Love
A review of “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom with Elizabeth and John Sherrill
ten Boom, Corrie, Elizabeth Sherrill, and John Sherrill. The Hiding Place. U.S., Chosen Books, 2006. Print.
Dear Fellow,
Hurt, bitterness, anger, frustration, hate, disappointment, distrust, et cetera: each one can only be cured—and avoided—by actions defined by a single word. The word? Love. Over the course of human history, the word love has borne varied definitions and offered connotations that it is somewhat necessary to distinguish what kind of love a person is talking about in any given context. Ultimately, love comes from a source; it manifests in many forms. Who is the source of Love?
Today is about Corrie ten Boom.
The Backstory
Her story is referenced in many pieces of written information I have come across. I have read quotes from her. I could feel the realness in her words and the quiet assurance that her words are from a place of in-depth understanding of her foremost message: the subject of love. I eventually came about reading her autobiography. It was recommended by a senior friend as a primary text for a biography of her that I was commissioned to write. The book in view is The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with Elizabeth and John Sherrill.
The Reading
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was born about a month premature on Good Fridaya of 1892, on the 15th of April. She was the last of four children. She was a citizen of Holland, a spinster all her life, the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland in 1921 . . . she was a woman with countless graces. She lived through the First World War (1914-1918) and felt the impact of the Second World War (1940-1945).
Corrie’s family was lovely and beautiful. Her father was a watchmaker just like his own father. Her mother was a lovely housewife, and her siblings were bliss. Their house was like a theatre for practical Christianity in a community—the Beje (what their house is famously called) met not just the watch-related needs of the people who walk into the building, but even their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. They were no psychics or priests, but the ten Booms saw everyone as their neighbour and offered their mattresses when necessary to the one in need. Their limits will be stretched and their love was put on trial when the Second World War came and the Jews were severely under attack by Hitler and widespread anti-Semitism.b
Before being taken to the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, Corrie ten Boom and her family members had to provide “hiding places” for their Jewish neighbours. In fact, that is the role she is widely known for in human history, but that is also her major crime against the Nazi government, which invaded Holland in 1940.
The Lessons
Corrie ten Boom has illustrative life experiences on the subject of love. First, was her romantic relationship with one Karel. Since 14 she was in love with Karel and grew certain over time that they will spend the rest of their lives together. At 21, she got a major shocker. Karel was engrossed in work, far away from Holland, which made it difficult for Corrie to understand the developments in his life. Or maybe she missed hints at his growing relationship with another lady in their correspondence (to which Corrie wrote more letters than Karel did). Karel and his wife visited the Beje on a homecoming visit (he was a good friend of Corrie’s elder brother) and that was a major heartbreak for Corrie. On the same day, she knew about Karel’s moving onc, she got a timeless remark on love from her father. Her father walked into her room while she was crying and said,
“Corrie, do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the word, and when it is blocked it means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill the love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or, Corrie, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel. God loves Karel—even more than you—and if you asked Him, He will give you His love for this man, a love nothing can prevent, nothing destroy. Whenever we cannot love in the old, human way, Corrie, God can give us the perfect way.”
Corrie healed and moved on. Little did she know she was being prepared for a higher challenge to love.
When the ten Booms's hospitality to the Jews blew up, they were all (except the mother who died in 1921) taken into custody in 1944. About a month or so afterwards, all others in the family were released. Corrie and her sister Elisabeth (aka Betsie) remained in custody for the rest of the year and lived in two prison facilities before they were moved to a concentration camp in Germany. At the camp, they were exposed to very terrible, dehumanising schemes. Betsie died at the camp. Corrie and her sister were preachers of hope in custody—they shared the gospel with fellow prisoners whenever they weren’t working at the German factories. Before her death, Betsie shared the visions for the responsibility that is upon them to share from the experiences they went through and the truths they learned. Following her release on New Year’s Day in 1945, Corrie relentlessly shared about their prison experiences, about the power of the love of Christ, and facilitated the building of homes for the rehabilitation of people who got released from the concentration camps seeking healing and reintegration into society. Her love was put to the ultimate test, when in 1947, after a speaking engagement in Germany, a man walked up to her. He was one of the officers who administered cruelty to the prisoners in the camp. He was also the man who delighted in seeing the women walk stark naked against their will when going in for a test at the camp. He walked up to her confessing how blessed her sermon was. She remembered him from the camp. Her hand hung down by her side while he waited for a warm handshake. He was unaware of the past. Her handshake will be a sign of hope for this man. What did she do?
The Conclusion
Corrie struggled to offer him what he needed. Let her finish the narrative:
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. “Jesus, I cannot forgive Him. Give your forgiveness.”
She learned after the handshake:
“And 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.”
For a Christian, this is the fountain of love. The source of love is God, from whom unreserved and unconditional love flows. Only then can love be at its purest, unreserved and without conditions.
With Love,
Your LetterMan,
Tongjal, W. N.
aGood Friday is a Christian event on which we remember the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The following Sunday is Easter.
bAccording to Google Dictionary, Anti-Semitism is defined as “hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people.”
cInterestingly, I was listening to the song Movin’ On by Jonathan McReynolds and Mali Music when I wrote the phrase. I wanted to write it just as the title of the song is, but opted against doing so. However, it is a cool piece from the duo.