The Hiding Place

I know this book is by no means new. It is likely that you have already read it, maybe even more than once. It was written in the 70s, I think, and the story it tells took place decades earlier, amid the horrors of the Holocaust, during World War II. But, as I have heard before, although the book is old, it holds timeless truths.

Just to share one insight I gained from Corrie's story:

The fleas!

There is a part in the story where Corrie and her sister Betsy find themselves in Ravensbruck, a German extermination camp, and they are introduced to their new living quarters. The first sight of them appalls Corrie. It's a room, made to house 400 people, but now accommodating 1,400 on large, long bunks. The mattresses smell of urine, and they are crawling with fleas. Corrie is driven to despair, but Betsy reminds her that their weapon is gratefulness. Together, they begin thanking God for everything they can think of -- for leading them to Ravensbruck, for all the women they can reach out to, for the Bible they have managed to sneak past all of the guards, "and for the fleas," says Betsy.

James Brown's depiction of women's sleeping quarters in Ravensbruck

 "The fleas!" Corrie is astonished. But Betsy insists that they are to give thanks for everything, in any circumstance. So Corrie thanks God for the fleas, but she is sure she could never be grateful for them.

As Corrie and Betsy get established in the extermination camp, they notice that they have almost no supervision in their living quarters, so they are free to hold Bible readings and worship sessions that bring life to the women around them. They later discover that the reason they were unsupervised is because the guards wanted to keep their distance...because of the fleas!

This was an impressing way to see that, indeed, isn't every detail of our lives in God's plan?

This book is definitely going under "Dahlia's Picks." I highly recommend it.