Book Review: The Hiding Place

Book by Corrie Ten Boom

It was a standard Monday morning. I was sitting on my desk at work, probably scrolling through social media, or doing something of the sort when I felt a burden to find Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place and read it with every sense of urgency. I immediately started to look for the book and I knew I wouldn’t rest until I found it. I even tweeted about it and shared my need on my Instagram story, and my best friend came through for me.

As I write this, I haven’t exactly figured out why God pressed it on my heart to read The Hiding Place at that time, but until then, and evermore, the lessons I have learnt from this great book will suffice.

In this review, I share some of the most profound things I learnt from The Hiding Place, with a lot of quotes from it. In no particular order, here they are.

Undaunting Faith and Strength

Betsie ten Boom’s faith is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There were so many statements she made that stood out for me but I’ll leave these:

“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.”

“When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need — just in time.”

It takes a certain depth to be able to boldly say things like these. Life really does give us gbas gbos, especially at the times we least expect it, but I’ve come to learn that God is not oblivious of these things, and the fact that He holds us through them is more than enough.

Abba’s intentionality about His own.

There was never a moment where God was not with the ten Booms. From the underground work to the prison cells, Ravensbrück, and beyond, Father was present, and He made it very well known to them.

An example of this is when the vitamins kept multiplying like the five loaves of bread and two fish Jesus shared. When Betsie said, “Don’t try too hard to explain it, Corrie. Just accept it as a surprise from a Father who loves you.”, I felt it deeply.

Abba never fails to go over the top and beyond to show how much He loves us, and that for me, is more than enough.

Father’s Sovereignty

Reading The Hiding Place reaffirmed the fact that even in the midst of evil, God’s agenda still prevails. A testament to this is the incidence of fleas being the reason they could hold evening services without being bothered by the guards at the concentration camp.

In a lot of ways, knowing that Father is always in control is really encouraging and reassuring, especially when situations and circumstances don’t make sense. Even when our attempts have failed us, we can find solace in Corrie ten Boom’s words:

“Perhaps only when human effort had done its best and failed, would God’s power alone be free to work.”

Streams of Provision

Provision was the first thing I noted while reading The Hiding Place. It still beats my imagination how God continuously opened wells and streams for the ten Booms and their team during the underground work.

“As each new need arose, a new answer was found, too.” Reading this statement made me think about how heavy God’s call sometimes is on our lives, but in all, we live for Him, and there is grace for every step of the way.

Even in the prison and concentration camp, God kept showing up for them in the most unexpected ways. As He said in Isaiah 43:19, “I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”, He did for the ten Booms.

Love and the need to love regardless

The Hiding Place is unarguably a tale of love: the supremacy of the love of Jesus Christ for us, His bride, and the call to share that love abroad, especially to those who are most unlovable.

There’s no statement in this books that’s summarized the book as much as this one did: “Love is larger than the walls that shut it in.”

With love comes forgiveness, and this was something Corrie learnt to extend to others, not because she wasn’t human, but because she was backed by faith in Jesus. In her words, “I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

Perspective

More than anything, Corrie, Casper and Betsie’s story echoed the importance of putting life into perspective to see the bigger picture. Like Corrie said, “Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for a future that only He can see.”

In Betsie ten Boom’s words, “There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety”. This statement is as true today as it was almost a hundred years ago. With everything happening in the world today, it helps to put things into perspective.

Further encouragement would be Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 8:18, telling us that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The Hiding Place certainly changed my view on life and circumstances. The only thing I longed to read and experience that I didn’t get to was Corrie’s grief over her family members as they passed on. Unfortunately, that aspect was very well absent in the whole book.

Apart from all the points above, I couldn’t help but notice and be drawn to the meticulousness of watchmakers. There’s just something about them that’s enthralling. I mean, Corrie even kept a calendar while she was in prison. That’s very unlikely of a lot of people.

I’ll conclude my review with this statement Corrie ten Boom made about her father:

“Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls — only to Father did it seem that they were all alike. That was Father’s secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn’t know they were there.”

I hope this spurs you on to find this work of art and read it.

For the record, The Hiding Place was put together by Elizabeth and John Sherrill, who also did the same for Brother Andrew’s God’s Smuggler (which I’m currently reading) and many other profound stories. I think they’re amazing writers, storytellers, and custodians of beautiful elements in Christian history, and I celebrate them for the work of their ministry.

Thank you for reading!