Down memory lane

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” Corrie Ten Boom

Two years ago I had the joy of accompanying my mother in fulfilling something on her bucket list. We went to Holland to see the tulips. The train trip was smooth with beautiful landscapes along the way. Th city of Amsterdam was beautiful with its waterways and unique architecture. Of course, the acres of tulips, all colors and varieties, was a wonder to see. Gorgeous!

On one of our days we took a train to the town of Haarlam not far from Amsterdam. When we stepped into the town’s train station, we felt transported back in time to the WWII era. We walked over to a cafe just across the square from the train station, ordered coffee and sat at an outside table.

The day was warm, sun shining, easy to forget the atrocities and fear that had filled those same streets during World War II. Nazi’s had marched the streets, invaded homes looking for Jews and those who harbored them, forcing them to the train station where we now enjoyed coffee. Those trains would carry them to concentration camps designed to abuse and kill its inhabitants.

After coffee, we walked just a little further and there it was — the Ten Boom watchmaker’s shop. Corrie and her family made their home above the shop, a haven for fleeing Jews during the Holocaust. She and her family were devout Christians with a directive from God to be helping hands to those in need of a safe hiding place. Most of you reading will know the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family being discovered by the Nazi regime. They were sent to the concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Her story was made famous by her book, The Hiding Place.

As my mother and I visited the shop and home, walked along the side streets around it, and back to the same train station that had once taken them all away, we were filled with a sense of awe in God. Being in that place was a visual reminder of the presence of Light in the midst of the darkest of evil. By her own testimony, Corrie affirms that God was with them in the worst of their situation. He had not left them; He drew closer to them. How could that be? Because they refused to take their own eyes off Him.

It is only in times of difficulties, when we shift our eyes from looking at Jesus, that we begin to see the dark and become afraid of what we see. When we make a choice to remain steadfast in focusing on Jesus, we see His faithful light to illuminate the way.

My thoughts were taken back to that bucket list trip when I read something a friend posted on Facebook this week. It was another quote from Corrie Ten Boom, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off, you sit still and trust the engineer.”

As our world displays its hatred, may we choose to keep our eyes on the Light. Only then will we, too, know His peace no matter the chaos and evil around us.