"Love is larger than the walls which shut it in." ~ Corrie ten Boom

Last Sunday I wrote briefly about the remarkable life of a remarkable woman: Corrie ten Boom.  This past week, I have been writing about love; the foundation of every marriage, surely, but also the foundation of every human and divine relationship.  Corrie knew a thing or two about love, which she shared freely. In turn, I'd like to share just a few of her thoughts today.

 “Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. ” * 

Love is not defined by a home nor by any possession or circumstances.  People can be loving in any situation.  Corrie loved her family when they lived in their home in Holland.  She grew to love the Jewish families they sheltered.  When they were caught by the Gestapo, Corrie's love for her sister Bitsie didn't diminish because they were in the most horrific of situations - a Nazi concentration camp.  If anything, that love grew and it grew to encompass the other inmates, as the sisters read to them from the Bible each night.  Corrie wrote that their barracks was infested with fleas worse than any other place in the camp, but she considered that a blessing because the guards were afraid to catch the fleas, so they didn't bother with the women.  As a result they could have their nightly devotionals unmolested.  That is love - when you consider fleas to be a blessing so that you can minister to others!

 

“Whenever we cannot love in the old, human way . . . God can give us the perfect way.”*

I know this to be true from personal experience.  Jesus commands us to love our enemies.  I can love another even before I feel any emotion one might associate with love.  But I cannot do it alone for very long. It would exhaust my human resources. But when Christ gives me His love to share with another, it is a joy.  Corrie was called by many "A Light in the Darkness." (Ein licht in der dunkelheit)  I think this was because she knew the secret: it is Christ's love, not mine, that does the deed.  He is the Light.

"When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself."*

"No hatred." (Bitsie ten Boom)*

“Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.”*

I think we underestimate the very real power in love.  One of my favorite scriptures is found in Paul's first letter to the Corinthian saints, chapter 13.  It is all about love; powerful love; Christ-like love.  Our understanding is so shallow that when we are hurt, we often want to shut our hearts away and say, "I'll never love again."  But I would rather have the pain of loss (such as the death of both my husbands and parents) than to never have had the love.  A life without grief at loss is of necessity a life without love.  That is too high a price to pay.  I can testify to you that, if we ask in humility, God will open up another route for our love to travel, one of which we probably never dreamed.

 

"There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still."

I know this to be true also.

*Quoted from Corrie's book The Hiding Place

Text © 2012 Gebara Education

Picture of Corrie from multiple sources on the web

Picture of ten Boom museum in Holland (the family home) from multiple sources on the web.

Picture of Ein licht in der dunkelheit from www.weltbild.de

Picture of ten Boom family from www.rejesus.co.uk

Picture of 1st Corinthians 13 from www.flikr.com