Show me the wonders of your great love,
    you who save by your right hand
    those who take refuge in you from their foes.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
    from my mortal enemies who surround me.

• Psalms 17:7-9

“’I am from Holland, and there, no woman is forced to stay in the street at night. There is always room in a police station-in a cell-and I am sure that in America, it is the same. I would not think of staying on the street all night in a town like Chicago.’
“She left for a minute, then came back and told me they had found a room for me. That was exactly what I hoped would happen.
“The room was not the most beautiful I had seen. It was very small but much more luxurious than the cell I lived in during my imprisonment.
“The next day, I stayed in my room to rest and talk with the Lord. Chicago had scared me. I did not know anyone, and it was a big, strange city to face alone. I confessed my fears to Him and surrendered the trip through America to His will. Two weeks later, the Lord opened the doors and hearts of Chicago in a way that blessed me tremendously. I never felt alone there after that.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place

“The Lord knows the way through the wilderness.  I put my hand in His, and He leads me through.”

• Corrie ten Boom, Highlighted Quote

Boilerplate

In this new mini-series, I will be looking at a devotion that is said to be written by Corrie ten Boom.  Really, this devotion is like several that I had read.  They come from the writings of that person.  Thus, the prayers at the end may be the editor’s addition to what Corrie ten Boom actually wrote.

Each of these posts will include the suggested verses to read, a quote from the writing that came from a Corrie ten Boom book (five in all according to the copyright page, but no chapter in the book is given the specific book of origin).  I will also include the highlighted quote, similar to an internet quotation, and I will end with the quoted prayer for that devotion.

Discussion

Tante Corrie was travelling through America in her usual fashion, staying at the YWCA.  This was soon after the war was over, but Chicago was a huge city even in those days.  She had arrived in Chicago.  It was Saturday morning, and when the person at the front desk started with her excuses that they were just closing up and they had no reservations, Tante Corrie asked if she would call the police.  The police could put her in a cell overnight.  This woman wanted her to call back on Monday morning.

Tante Corrie said that the safest place in the world was in the center of God’s will.  She had been called to go to Chicago, but the city at night was a terrible thought.  She knew her Bible and horrible things happened to women left alone outside with no physical protection.

The YWCA was kind of like city missions.  They would give you a room for very little expense, but you were usually limited in the time you could stay.  It was pretty much as Tante Corrie described in this devotion.  They did not want women to be alone on the streets at night in a strange town.  They usually had circumstances connected to their offer of a room.  Being new to town and no other means of a roof over their head were among the qualifications and Corrie ten Boom met both qualifications.

Was the front desk clerk about to leave for the weekend and she did not wish to be interrupted by someone asking her to do her job?  Was the room not yet clean and by the time it was cleaned, she would be off her shift?  Or did she not wish to be bothered?  Whatever the reason, she said “no vacancies” when there was a vacancy.  Tante Corrie described it as small but larger than the cell when she was in prison, but in an earlier story, that cell was solitary confinement.  Those cells hardly gave you enough room to change your mind.  It was probably a stark room next to the noisy boiler and she did not want to hear Tante Corrie complaining on Monday when she returned.

But Tante Corrie was not completely assured a room.  She had hoped there was a room.  In another of her books, she was left to sleep in the doorframe of the home that had previously said they had room, and that was in New York City.  But with some overnight mishaps, Corrie ten Boom took the suffering as part of the process.  She felt God had led her in that direction, and if she was in the center of God’s will, she would be safe.

That mindset is only a safe mindset when you have a very strong relationship with God.  And suffering the privations along the way are not nearly as bad as your experience in past times.  As they say, do not gamble any money that you cannot afford to lose.  In this case, do not live on the hope of finding a room if you are not prepared to sleep in a doorframe or on a park bench.

But Tante Corrie knew what she was doing.  She did not mind the noisy room next to the boiler that was too small to be an adequate guest room.  And she had a feeling that they had such a room once the clerk asked the manager.

Sometimes, we know the excuses, and we know when someone lies to us.  Other times, we know God has led us to this moment.  But I know of that feeling of fear in a strange town.

My third trip to China was interesting.  I was not given a Chinese cellphone, but at the last minute, the company administrative assistant slipped me a phone without the bosses knowing.  I had been elevated to the position of the lead traveler.  I had been there before, and the other person had never been outside the USA.  I knew the ropes.  This other guy was safe.

We arrived in Beijing, PR China, we got our luggage and we cleared immigration.  We went outside the airport and there was no one there with a sign saying that he was our driver.  If anyone spoke English, they did not offer to help.  We sat on a park bench, and I pulled my cell phone out of my carryon.  I had the number of the girlfriend of one of our field engineers, those that stay at the construction site for months.

Note: He eventually arranged for her visa to the USA and they got married.

I called her and she knew who was to pick us up.  She called one person who called another person.  And about two hours later, she called me back to say that the driver had been stuck in a traffic jam.  He was finally moving again, and we would be picked up in an hour.  I have no idea that her story of a traffic jam was true, but her new arrival time was true.  Once we were at our hotel, it took me three days before my associate was willing to walk down the street to a restaurant.  Other than a taxi taking us to the job site, he refused to get into one.  Upon our return, we stayed at a Holiday Inn (no longer part of that chain now), and I knew where good shopping was near the hotel, but my associate refused to leave his room.

But thinking back to when we had arrived in Beijing, I was almost to the point of walking from arrivals at the airport back to ticketing and going home.  If I had not gotten that cellphone from the company administrative assistant, I definitely would have done just that.  There would be no means of getting a message back to the USA that our driver had not shown.  And the company administrative assistant had been the church treasurer when I was an elder and I was friends with her and her husband before she came to work at the company.  I got back home a week later and no one had missed the phone she gave me.

But, my associate had no experience with this type of travel.  He stayed in his hotel room.  The rooms smelled pretty bad in that the sewer gases billowed forth from the floor drains in the bathroom.  I told him to wet a hand towel and cover the floor drains. With that done, he was only comfortable in a room that looked like a nice hotel room in the USA.  Look out the window, and you saw smog.  So, keep the curtains closed.  Do not turn the TV on.  There may only be one station with English speaking voices, but with Chinese language characters floating across the screen.  As an old friend said, when you are next to the equipment that the company built, you could convince yourself that you were in Ohio.

So, in this last story from this book of Corrie ten Boom writings, she concludes with the idea that you are safe in the center of God’s will.  You should not be foolhardy, but you should not be meek either.  Stay on the path toward God and God will not lead you astray.

Editor’s Note: This is the last of this mini-series. The author has a plan, and a backup plan if the first idea fails to come together. But something will be in this timeslot.

Closing Prayer

“Father, I have committed my life to follow You and bring You honor. When I am surrounded by darkness, I will turn toward the light of Your presence and hide in the shadow of Your covering wings. Give me Your instructions and lead me to safety. Shelter me from evil. Be my Comforter, Protector and Savior. Redeem me according to Your faithfulness. Hold me tightly in Your love, as I surrender my life to You.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place (prayer for Day 40, Protected in His Presence)

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.