No "what if" in God's world - Caroline Mertens

In her autobiography, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom wrote about her early life and call to hide Jews during WWII in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Her writing often discusses various trials they faced over the years leading up to WWII. As the war progressed, bombings and air fights occurred over her city. She often wondered when the pain and suffering would end. While she didn’t always have answers, she continued to trust God.
The ten Booms started a weekly prayer meeting for Jewish people in 1844 and met consistently for 100 years, before their faith and devotion were tested. The lessons Corrie cultivated her entire life were challenged, and her devotion to prayer mattered.

Corrie wrote:
One night I tossed for an hour while dogfights raged overhead, streaking my patch of sky with fire. At last I heard Betsie stirring in the kitchen and ran down to join her.

She was making tea. She brought it into the dining room where we had covered the windows with heavy black paper and set out the best cups. Somewhere in the night there was an explosion; the dishes in the cupboard rattled. For an hour we sipped our tea and talked, until the sound of the planes died away and the sky was silent.
I said goodnight to Betsie at the door to Tante Jan’s rooms and groped my way up the dark stairs to my own. The fiery light was gone from the sky.
I felt for my bed: there was the pillow.
Then in the darkness my hand closed over something hard. Sharp too! I felt blood trickle along a finger.

It was a jagged piece of metal, ten inches long.

“Betsie!”

I raced down the stairs with the shrapnel shard in my hand. We went back to the dining room and stared at it in the light while Betsie bandaged my hand. “On your pillow,” she kept saying.

“Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen —“

But Betsie put a finger on my mouth. “Don’t say it, Corrie! 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 only safety — O Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it!”

– – –

Here in 2022, much has changed, and so little has changed. We still live in a time of uncertainty, much like the era in which the ten Boom family lived. Perhaps some of us are in the “in between” times, where we gather with others for prayer, anticipating something monumental to come.

Our world will always experience wars, famine, diseases, and difficulties. We are consistently called to live prayerful and meaningful lives. I hope we can view these trials through the lens of a God who cares and will never leave us during even the greatest of challenges and even in the darkest of nights.

May we live well and love others in this moment with gratitude for the gift of life God has given. May God continue to offer us grace and peace surpassing understanding.