The Hiding Place--The Father

So often we are self-consumed and allow our petty little trials unhappinesses to overtake us and distract us from trusting the Lord.  Anytime we're tempted to feel a little sorry for ourselves or worry about what the future holds, we would be encouraged and renewed by reading Corrie ten Boom's experiences recorded in The Hiding Place.  I read it recently with my teens and could hardly put it down.  It was so much better this time through than when I first read it.  The faith and trust exemplified in her life inspires me and shames me all at the same time. 

Surely everyone knows Corrie and her family's story of helping Jews in Holland before being captured and shipped from one concentration camp to another.  If you've never read her incredible faith walk, do yourself a favor and put it at the top of your list.  There's so much in the book that I could never do it justice in a blog post book review.

This reading I was especially struck by Corrie's father and the influence he had on his children and others around him.  It seems every time we turn around we're hearing of the importance of a father's role and how influential he is (for good or bad) on his children's futures.  Most often we hear of the father's negative influence, but how encouraging it was to see the positive influence of this God-fearing man's life.

Who was Corrie's father?

• He was a man who "could never bear a house without children and whenever he heard of a child in need of a home a new face would appear at the table" (5).
• He was a man with many friends from all walks and ages of life.  "Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls--only to Father did it seem that they were all alike.  That was Father's secret:  not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn't know they were there" (13).
• He was a man who was never too busy with his work to listen to people's problems or pause to pray for them.
• He was a man "skilled at finding good in every situation, so slow to believe evil" (61) yet realistic enough to recognize difficult truths and honest enough to name them.
• He was a man who chose to do what was right, regardless of the personal consequences. 
• He was such a wise man, knowing when to when impart knowledge and when to withhold it, using parables to teach his children.  Here is my favorite:  

     Seated next to Father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sexsin?"
     He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing.  At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor.
     "Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.
     I stood up and tugged at it.  It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
     "It's too heavy," I said.
     "Yes," he said.  "And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.  It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge.  Some knowledge is too heavy for children.  When you are older and stronger you can bear it.  For now you must trust me to carry it for you."
     And I was satisfied.  More than satisfied--wonderfully at peace.  There were answers to this and all my hard questions--for now I was content to leave them in my father's keeping.  (26)

With a father like that--it's no wonder his children chose to serve the Lord, even to the point of death, in the brave ways they did.