The following is one of the stories of extraordinary gratitude featured in our new “It is Well With My Soul” Gratitude Journal. Use the code THANKYOU25 for 25% Off. Get your copy by CLICKING HERE.
Cover image via Wikimedia Commons.
Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian whose family helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. When they were caught, she and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Conditions in their dormitory room were harrowing. Corrie lay back as waves of nausea washed over her from the reeking, moldy straw that was her bed. Suddenly, she sat up, bumping her head on the cross slats of the bunk above; something had pinched her leg.
“Fleas!” She cried out to her sister, “the place is swarming with them!”
“Betsie, how can we live in such a place!” Her sister’s quiet answer was, “Show us. Show us how.” It took a moment for Corrie to realize that her sister was praying. Suddenly, Betsie remembered a passage from the Bible that they’d studied together that morning. Among other things, the passage said, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances.”
But how could they give thanks in such circumstances? Corrie looked skeptically around the foul-aired room for something for which to be grateful. Her sister thought of one: that they had been assigned here together. And another, that they had managed to keep their Bible.
“Yes! Thank You, dear Lord,” said Corrie, “that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all these women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.”
Betsie took it a step further. “Yes, Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear” At a nudge from her sister, Corrie reluctantly agreed, “Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds.”
Betsie serenely added, “thank you for the fleas and for—” But this was too far for Corrie.
“Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.” Betsie insisted that the fleas were part of their circumstances and so, worthy of their gratitude. Corrie was sure she was wrong.
And so, the weeks went on, and they coped with their poor conditions by studying the word of God. At first, they gathered others around them with timidity, afraid they would be caught and have their Bible taken away. But night after night, no guards came, and so they grew bolder. In fact, so many women wanted to gather to hear and study together, that they began to hold a second study session, crammed together in the back of the dormitory where there was just enough light to read by.
They were grateful that no one interfered, but also puzzled by it. The camp was under rigid surveillance with guards pacing up and down in every direction. The center barracks had half a dozen guards at all times, but this large dormitory never had a single one. They couldn’t understand it.
Then one night, there was confusion in Betsie’s knitting group about sock sizes, and they asked a supervisor to come settle it. But she wouldn’t come in. Neither would the guards. Betsie finally understood.
She couldn’t keep the triumph from her voice as she told her sister why the supervisor said she would never enter—and why they had been able to teach, and commune, and learn about Jesus without interference: “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said. ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’”
Though Corrie had doubted it was possible, she learned that there was reason to be grateful, even for fleas.
(Read more of Corrie Ten Boom’s experiences in her book, The Hiding Place.)
Use the code THANKYOU25 for 25% Off our “It is Well With My Soul” Gratitude Journal.
