Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’ So Israel will live in safety; Jacob will dwell secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.

• Deuteronomy 33:26-28

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your Godhas commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

• Deuteronomy 5:15

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

• Matthew 28:20b

“Now Father was dead. Only my Heavenly Father remained. I ran my hand over the door, letting my fingers explore the cracks. It was no longer my hiding place. Others lived here now, and the world was my classroom, and my only security came in knowing that underneath were the Everlasting Arms. How thankful I was for my Heavenly Father’s strong hand around mine. …
“Suddenly the cathedral started to play its nostalgic chimes. Day and night through my lifetime I had heard the beautiful music from the Grote Kerk. It was not a dream, as I had often experienced in the concentration camp. It was real. I walked out of the shadows of the alley and made my way down the Barteljorisstraat to the Grote Markt. I paused to look at the cathedral which was silhouetted against the dark sky, framed into place by a million twinkling stars.
“ ‘Thank You, Jesus, that I am alive,’ I said.
“In my heart I heard Him reply, … (Matthew 28:20b).
“I stayed there for long minutes as the hands on the face of the great clock moved toward the hour. Then the chimes in the cathedral tower pealed forth once again, this time with the sounds of Luther’s famous hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.’ I listened and heard myself singing the hymn, not in Dutch, but in German: ‘Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.’
“ ‘How like You, Lord,’ I half-chuckled, ‘that You would remind me of Your grace by letting me hear a German hymn.’
“A policeman passed, looked at me, and spoke a friendly word.
“I said, ‘Good-night, Policeman. A mighty fortress is our God.’
“I was free!”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

In this chapter of her book, she returned to her hometown of Haarlem, the Netherlands, which is a city to the west of Amsterdam, a city roughly halfway between Amsterdam and the western coast of Holland.  It is where Corrie’s father ran his clockmaking shop, living above the shop.  It took her all day before she scrambled up enough nerve to go.  As she speaks of the cracks in the door, she is examining the “hiding place” that had saved many Jews during the war.

But here she was, with no home.  Other people lived where she had once lived, and she had no home.  Why not move on?  The owners of the shop and house were sent to the concentration camps, and people rarely survive that.

She was walking down memory lane.  She was assessing what resources she had while she recovered from the insults to her body, mind, and soul which was a concentration camp.

And then the chimes of the cathedral rang.  She remembered whose arms she was cradled in.  She remembered whose protective hand held her.  And she remembered what she had to do.

Then, oddly, she sung the words of the famous hymn in German instead of Dutch.  At this point, she was glad to be rid of Germany and she did not wish to return.  More on that in a future chapter.  But she immediately thought of God’s grace in that she sang the song in German.  Yes, there were believers in 1945 in Germany.  They were not all evil.  And even those people could be redeemed.

And with that moment of grace, she knew she was free.

The next episode finds her ministry starting with a trip to America, with mixed results.

Lord, strengthen me.  While Corrie ten Boom was being strengthened after her captivity, she wrote her book The Hiding Place.  With some of the money she made in book sales, she started her ministry, but first she had to find herself. Again, she is a model for us all to aspire.  We need to take stock.  We need to find out from whence our strength and protection comes.  Then, we need to be bold, even laughing at ourselves and our frailty.  For our strength is in You, not us.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.