The Book
While recovering from a bad cold, I decided to binge on audio books from my local public library. My initial choice was Corrie ten Boom’s memoir, The Hiding Place. As a child, Corrie was nurtured by her faithful family and was raised to see the beauty and goodness of all people. If God created them, who was she to hate them?
When Nazi occupation cast its dark shadow of injustice over the Netherlands, Corrie’s family couldn’t bear to witness the suffering of the Jewish people and embarked on a heroic mission to offer refuge to as many as they could and find safe havens for the rest. Tragically, their noble efforts were betrayed by a trusted friend, leading to the imprisonment of the entire family.
Eventually, Corrie and her sister, Betsie, were transferred to the brutal Ravensbrück concentration camp, where they experienced many horrors and moments of despair. Remarkably, their faith and devotion only grew stronger amid the darkness. In the midst of this harrowing ordeal, they experienced many miracles and found themselves acting as missionaries in a place where the Bible was forbidden and forgiveness was in short supply.
The question of how these two concentration camp prisoners could summon the capacity to forgive their captors looms large throughout this narrative. Nevertheless, “The Hiding Place” is a testament to the extraordinary, demonstrating how faith and the divine can transform the seemingly impossible into reality. If a Holocaust survivor can forgive, so can we!
When we look at the forgiveness that Jesus offers us, we can choose to act like the man in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, or we can choose to act like Jesus, the man who gave his life as penalty for all of our sins.
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii,and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Matthew 18:21-35 (ESV)
As for me, I choose Jesus. If Corrie can choose Jesus after all of the suffering and difficulty that she endured, all of us can have hope!
Respond
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English Standard Version (ESV): Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
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