Forgiveness seventy times seven

I thought my grandmother had it all sewn up when it came to forgiveness of epic proportions. She's the one who forgave a young man for accidentally killing her daughter with a shotgun back in the 1930s and continued her friendship with the boy's family for some years after. (See a previous post for the whole story.)

But I've just finished reading an excellent little biography about Corrie ten Boom, the Dutchwoman who, along with her family, helped hide eight Jews in their home in Northern Holland during the German occupation in World War II. Miss ten Boom was in her fifties when the Gestapo raided the family home and led the family, including her elderly father, on a nightmarish trip from prison to a work camp and finally to the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp where Miss ten Boom's older sister died of illness.

The ten Booms were Christians, members of the Dutch Reformed Church, and dedicated to helping their Jewish neighbors any way they could. Her father even went so far as to acquire one of the yellow cloth Stars of David that Jews were required to wear on their clothes. He wanted to wear it as a show of solidarity but his daughters persuaded him to find other ways to help. Wearing the Star meant you could be interrogated or beaten at will while out in public.

When the Gestapo finally did raid the ten Boom home, they did their best through beatings and questionings to find out where Jews, if any, were hidden. No one gave up the secret and despite the torture and imprisonment, Corrie ten Boom later learned that all but one Jew had escaped the Nazis after leaving the ten Boom home.

Corrie ten Boom spent the rest of her life after being released from Ravensbruck lecturing on the topic of forgiveness as demonstrated by Christ Jesus. She shared her story and her understanding of God's love for all humanity with countless thousands around the world before she died at age 91 in Los Angeles.

I'm not sure I could summon one one-hundreth of the forgiveness Miss ten Boom had, and as I read her biography my eyes teared up more than once.

If you want to know what happened to one Christian family persecuted for living its faith during WWII, read a bio of Corrie ten Boom. It will break your heart and then bind it back up.