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Themes Accountability to God AGREE TO BE FREE Corrie Ten Boom, imprisoned in Germany for sheltering Jews from Adolph Hitler's persecution, was transported to Scheveningen, a prison camp, on February 29, 1944. After two weeks, she was put in solitary confinement in a cold cell. One chilly morning, a guard unlocked her cell and ordered Corrie to an interrogation hut. As she walked past other interrogation huts, she noticed whoever worked in the fourth hut had planted tulips along the sidewalk. "Please, Lord," Corrie prayed. "Let me be taken to hut number four!" Surely a man who took time to plant flowers would be kind to her. The guard stopped at hut number four, and the door opened to a stern-looking lieutenant, Lieutenant Rahms. To Corrie's relief, he did seem kind, and offered her a chair before the fire to warm her frozen feet and hands. She commented on his tulips, and the lieutenant was very pleased she had noticed them. Then he said, "Miss Ten Boom, tell me everything about why you are in prison. Do not hide anything from me." Corrie's smile faded. His friendliness was only a mask to get Corrie to tell everything about her work sheltering the Jews. For an hour he tried to get information from Corrie, but she refused. Instead she told him of her work with mentally retarded children, teaching them the Bible. Finally, Lieutenant Rahms exploded in anger, "What a waste of time!" "The truth, sir," said Corrie, "Is that God sees things differently than we see them. He knows that a mentally retarded person can trust Him, but sometimes an intelligent man, like yourself, will not trust Him." Instantly the lieutenant stood to his feet and ordered her back to her cell. Corrie thought she had spoken too much and made him angry. However, the next morning, Lieutenant Rahms himself opened her cell door and took her to the same hut. "I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about what you said. What else does the Bible say about me?" he asked her. Corrie told the German officer about Jesus Christ, the Light of the world who had come to die for our sins. She knew the lieutenant's job was to put innocent people in prison, and his conscience was like a knife inside him. He knew he had done wrong. "There is great darkness in my life," the lieutenant told Corrie. The week ended, and Corrie did not see the Lieutenant again for months. Finally, one bright morning in June he came to see her again.
"Come to my office to read your father's will" he ordered sternly. There was no friendliness in his eyes now, only darkness. The Lieutenant had seen his own sin. However, Corrie never knew if he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Did he know that agreeing with God was his only hope? Have you ever faced the fact that you are a sinner? What do you deserve for your sins? How will you be? The Bible offers salvation to sinners. As Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous but SINNERS to repentance" (Mark 2:16). He wants you to have "repentance towards God (agreement with God about your sins) and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Have you?
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Simon Wallace
