The Hiding Place

Baby Update - Week 21

The baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long. Its eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed. And my mom can certainly feel it move. It's oblivious to my mom's schedule, though, so it starts working out just when my mom's settling down for the night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm going to go see Eragon again tonight, with Maika. I can't wait! I don't even know why I like it so much!
And I finished reading The Hiding Place for the second time today. I read it exactly year ago, but my innocent, wee mind couldn't handle it, and so instead of focusing on how God helped Corrie Ten Boom, I only thought about the terrible things she went through and let them haunt me.
But this time I read it for a school assignment, and I noticed how deeply she talks about God - she wasn't even a mormon, didn't have the Book of Mormon, but I think that she may have been a lot closer to God than a lot of mormons are.
The very end is very good, for example:

"It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

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 me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so 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..."

2007

Good, huh? And my favorite quote from the book:

"Color drained from the man's face. He took a step back from me. 'Miss ten Boom! I do hope you're not involved with any of this illegal concealment...It's just not safe! Think of your father!'

I pulled the coverlet back from the baby's face. The man bent forward, his hand in spite of himself reaching for the tiny fist curled around the blanket. For a moment I saw compassion and fear struggle in his face. 'No definitely not. We could lose our lives for that Jewish child!'

Unseen by either of us, Father had appeared in the doorway. 'Give the child to me, Corrie,' he said.

Father held the baby close, his white beard brushing its cheek, looking into the little face with eyes as blue and innocent as the baby's . 'You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family'..."