Find Strength, Peace and Perspective through Gratitude

Corrie and Betsie ten Boom were Dutch citizens during World War II.

The moving book The Hiding Place tells how they were arrested by Nazis for hiding Jews in their home, and transported to a female extermination camp in Germany.

They were marched to their barracks where they found the bedding crawling with biting fleas.

Imprisoned, hungry, and suffering they turned to the Bible to find strength. They read a passage in 1 Thessalonians that reads, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances…”

To Corrie’s surprise, Betsie immediately began praying and said, “Thank You for the fleas.”

Corrie interjected, “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

“Give thanks in all circumstances,” Betsie quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’”

Days went by and they found that they had more freedom in their barracks than was expected. One day Betsie told Corrie, “You know we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room. Well—I’ve found out.”

That afternoon, Betsie said, there’d been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it.

“But she wouldn’t,” said Betsie. “She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why? Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’”

It was then that Corrie remembered Betsie’s prayer thanking God for the fleas, and understood how she could find reasons to be grateful in the worst imaginable circumstances.