View Blog Entry

Why would anyone be thankful for fleas?

Betsy and Corrie ten Boom were. These sisters from Holland were placed in the notorious Ravensbruck prison during the early 1940s because their family opened their home to Jews hiding from the Nazis. For four years, the family saved many people who would otherwise have been taken prisoner or killed simply because they were Jewish.

But an informer betrayed the ten Boom family to the Gestapo, and they were arrested. The Nazis freed some members, but they took Corrie and Betsie to Ravensbruck where women prisoners were crowded into the camp and treated cruelly. The women were forced to labor at back-breaking work, given little to eat, and faced death every moment.

Even in prison, Corrie and Betsie witnessed for Jesus and showed His love to those around them. When Corrie complained, Betsie reminded her of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. Paul, too, suffered many things to spread God’s Word.

When the guards saw the sisters’ living quarters infected with fleas, they would not enter. Corrie and Betsie were free to share the encouraging words of the Bible with those who desperately needed to know God loved them. Many women heard the salvation message and became Christians because the fleas kept the guards away.

Corrie and Betsie thanked God they could be together and that they had a Bible. They also thanked God for the overcrowded building, because that meant more women could hear God’s Word. Betsie even thanked God for the fleas.

We may have fleas in our life—problems that seem unsolvable. We may feel alone and believe no one cares about us. But when we open our life to Jesus Christ—as those persecuted women did in that inhuman prison—we will have the assurance God knows about the concerns in our life and will guide us through everything. He may not take the fleas away, but we will never have to face them alone.

Give your life and your problems to Jesus Christ.    

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)