In God's Hands

by Heather Tietz

The LORD is on my side among those who help me. Therefore I will look in triumph at those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD, than to put confidence in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD, than to put confidence in princes.

Psalm 118:7-9

Betsie Ten Boom was a Dutch Reform Christian who had been caught up in the Jewish Holocaust that swept through Holland. She and her family began hiding Jewish friends and transferring them to safety houses in the countryside.

After a year and a half they had created an elaborate ring of underground homes and ration cards to feed and transfer nearly a thousand Jewish people to safety.

Then, in February1944, the family’s secret was discovered. They were arrested, and for the next year moved around Jewish prisons and concentration camps, brutalized, and forced at hard labor.

Betsie and her sister Corrie stuck together. In spite of the heavy hand of the enemy, they were in God’s hands. In the evenings, they initiated scripture reading and worship in their barracks. Somehow, their humble church services were never stopped.

In fact, they grew with such popularity that the sisters had to hold a second service at bedtime. They discovered their barrack was filled with Catholics, Lutherans and Eastern Orthodox Christians. God’s praises were declared in Dutch, French, Polish, Russian, and Czech. Together they found refuge in God.

In December that year, God took Betsie Home. Corrie retells the story of how she died smiling and with a declaration that God was greater than any trouble. In some of her last words Betsie urged her sister to share that hope with others.

Wherever we are, we can trust ourselves to God’s hands.