Cornelia Arnolda Johanna “Corrie” ten Boom was a Dutch Christian watchmaker and later a writer who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister Betsie ten Boom and other family members to help many Jews escape the Nazis from the Holocaust during World War II by hiding them in her home. She believed her actions were following the will of God. They were caught, and she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, is a biography that recounts the story of her family’s efforts and how she found hope in God while she was imprisoned at the concentration camp.
Corrie told the story of her family members and their World War II work in her bestselling book, The Hiding Place, which was made into a 1975 World Wide Pictures film, The Hiding Place, starring Jeannette Clift as Corrie and Julie Harris as Betsie. In 1977, the 85-year-old Corrie migrated to Placentia, California. In 1978, she suffered two strokes, the first rendered her unable to speak, and the second resulted in paralysis. She died on her 91st birthday, 15 April 1983, after suffering a third stroke. Corrie was buried in Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California. (via Wikipedia)
Here are a few Quotes by Corrie Boom:
On Love:
And so I learned that love is larger than the walls that shut it in
(From: The Hiding Place)
Do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.
(From: The Hiding Place)
Mama’s love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street– and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in.
(From: The Hiding Place)
On Worry:
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.
Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.
On Knowledge:
Some knowledge is too heavy…you cannot bear it…your Father will carry it until you are able.
(From: The Hiding Place)
On Life:
The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.
On God:
If God has shown us bad times ahead, it’s enough for me that He knows about them. That’s why He sometimes shows us things, you know – to tell us that this too is in His hands.
(From: The Hiding Place)
You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.
Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work he will give us to do.
And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of him.
Don’t bother to give God instructions, just report for duty.
God takes our sins – the past, present, and future, and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says NO FISHING ALLOWED.
Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.
In darkness God’s truth shines most clear.
It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability that counts.
There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.
When I try, I fail. When I trust, he succeeds.