The Hiding Place: God is our refuge

“I don’t know [what will happen], but 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.” (The Hiding Place, pg. 63)


“My sister, though seven years older than I, still had that slender grace that made people turn and look after her in the street. Heaven knows it wasn’t her clothes; our little watch shop had never made much money. But when Betsie put on a dress, something happened to it.” (Pg. 2)


“Will you carry it [my suitcase] off the train, Corrie?” he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
“It’s too heavy, “ I said.
“Yes,” he said. “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”
And I was satisfied. More than satisfied-wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions-for now I was content to leave them in my father’s keeping. (pg. 26)


Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. “Corrie,” he began gently, “when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?”
I sniffed a few times, considering this.
“Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly. And our wise Father in Heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. 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.” (pg. 29)


“Lord, you turn the wheels of the galaxies. You know what makes the planets spin and You know what makes this watch run…You are the One who sets the atoms dancing and keeps the great currents circling through the sea.” (pg. 53)


“There are no ‘if’s’ in God’s world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of his will is our safety-O Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it!” (pg. 67)


He hung naked on the cross.
I had not know-I had not though…The paintings, the carved crucifixes showed at the least a scrap of cloth. But this, I suddenly knew, was the respect and reverence of the artist. But oh-at the time itself, on that other Friday morning-there had been no reverence. No more than I saw in the faces around us now.
I leaned toward Betsie, ahead of me in line. “Betsie, they took His clothes too.”
Ahead of me I heard a little gasp. “Oh Corrie. And I never thanked him….” (pg. 196)


And so I struggled on with worship and teaching that had ceased to be real. Until one drizzly, raw afternoon when just enough light came through the window to read by, I came to Paul’s account of his “thorn in the flesh.” Three times, he said, he had begged God to take away his weakness, whatever it was. And each time God had said, Rely on me. At last Paul concluded-the words seemed to leap from the page-that his very weakness was something to give thanks for. Because now Paul knew that none of the wonders and miracles which followed his ministry could be due to his own virtues. It was all Christ’s strength, never Paul’s. (pg. 214)