Book club wrap-up on "The Hiding Place"

Book club was today. First of all, I love my girls, but it was REALLY (can I emphasize it enough??) nice to get away for three hours of insightful and meaningful conversation. We meet bi-monthly. We've read four books now: A Severe Mercy, Whose Body?, Quo Vadis and The Hiding Place. All have been good choices (except for Whose Body, which is a fun book, but I don't think it really lends itself to discussion).

It was beneficial to read Quo Vadis (QV) and The Hiding Place (THP) in succession. Both speak to the dissolution of moral/social structure, persecution, tyranny. Both also portray selflessness in the face of the seeming need for self-preservation.

Some great discussion points:

• Corrie's sister, Betsie was her "Aaron" -- just like Moses had doubts and fears, so did Corrie, but her beloved Betsie always put her back on track and pointed her face back to the Lord's face.
• What could have been a source of lifelong disappointment for many women, actually made easier Corrie and Betsie's task to save hundreds of lives: neither were married; they were "spinsters". But without spouses or children, their lives were freed-up to complete this mission.
• Corrie thought that the activities conducted within the "Beje" (their business and home) were so secret. But much of Haarlem knew! And kept their secret, too.
• Corrie was over 50 when interned at Ravensbruck.
• The smallest details of our lives are important to the Lord...and possibly working a good that we will only know later, or never. Corrie wanted to curse the fleas -- Betsie thanked the Lord for them. Later, those fleas kept the guards away, giving Corrie and Betsie freedom to conduct Bible studies right under the guards' noses.

Then we started talking about childrearing, adoption, storytime at the library, subtle social messages in children's books (I CAN'T STAND "The Rainbow Fish". Maybe I'll blog on that sometime.) Oh well, so much for enlightened discussion, but it was great while it lasted.

"The Hiding Place" -- Corrie Ten Boom

The Beje - the Ten Boom watch shop on the bottom floor and family home above and behind.

I just finished "The Hiding Place" for my book club which meets tomorrow. It seems to me that I have read it before...high school maybe? Once again, in a very broad sense, the same type of literature I've been hanging onto the past few books: "Quo Vadis" (Nero's Rome -- "civilized" society in upheaval), "The Road" (see post below), "World Made by Hand" (see post below), and now "The Hiding Place" about the nightmare that was Nazi occupied Europe.

Corrie (or the author as she relayed the story to) had an easy way of telling a story. She was able to describe the horror of Nazi occupation and then the inevitable sentence to the concentration camp in a way that was not grotesque, yet did not lessen the impact of that horror. She even interjected quite a bit of humor.

The message of forgiveness is THE POINT of this book. God forgives us. We must forgive our enemies. She regarded the Word of God worth her life -- literally. She risked her life to have a Bible, or at least portions of a Bible, always with her while at Ravensbruck (women's concentration/extermination camp in what became East Germany). She "managed" to hold onto her precious Bible even through the humiliations of "medical" exams (strip searches). The Lord had His hand on her, for sure! The Bible always made it through.

Corrie Ten Book was a remarkable woman. I think I will add her to my hypothetical "any-10-people-you'd-wish-to-have-for-dinner" table.

Many of the Amazon.com reviewers claim that the book starts out slow. I wholeheartedly disagree. It is contemplative, but not slow. It was necessary for her to set the scene explaining her idyllic and somewhat shielded childhood in Haarlem, Netherlands.

I bet your church library has a copy -- check it out.