~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You
John 14:18a,26 says “I will not leave you orphaned…The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all I have said.” …Our first story comes from The Hiding Place, the biography of Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian whose family saved a number of Jews from the Nazis, and were themselves arrested and put in concentration camps. In telling about their lives under Nazi persecution, Corrie shows how God the Holy Spirit was with them and comforting them, and performing miracles that were seen and experienced not only by them but also by their fellow prisoners. God protected the precious little Bible that they with God’s help were able to keep with them for some time in their captivity, and He made it possible for them to hold Bible study and worship – turning the circumstances of evil into a sacred place.
God dwelt with Corrie and her sister, and though sometimes Corrie became overwhelmed by the difficult trials, her sister would always speak the Word into her and pray.
At the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbruck, one of the miracles the Spirit used to confirm Christ’s presence with them relates to a small bottle. Betsie, Corrie’s older sister, was sickly during much of her life, and required daily infusions of vitamins to help strengthen her physical frame. Under the Spirit’s watch, Betsie’s vitamins had been smuggled in and preserved. Corrie would put a drop or two of the liquid vitamin onto Betsie’s daily black bread ration.
It would be daily that The Spirit moved more of their fellow prisoners to thirst for Bible study and worship. Hearing their prison mates from different nationalities translate the Bible words being read so that others could understand was like divine music.
And it would also be daily that Betsie was moved to share her small bottle of vitamins with other ill women, starting with one or two women, then the number kept growing. Corrie was worried that all of the vitamins in the small vial would be used up, leaving her sister without. Yet, the more generous Betsie was with the drops, the more the bottle filled. Corrie was amazed! The small bottle should have given up its last drop after only a few days, but the more the medicine was needed, the more it would come from the bottle.
Like with the widow of Zarapheth who gave the prophet Elijah a room in her home, whose oil and meal were almost gone but by God’s miracle through Elijah, she never ran out of meal and oil, and survived the famine in the land.
The miracle of the never-ending vitamin drops were a source of awe to the women being helped by them and a turning point for their faith. That divine delivery continued for a while until one day a fellow prisoner obtained a large supply of vitamins and yeast compound, sharing it with Corrie. Corrie was grateful to God for this windfall. She happily took enough for Betsie, thinking maybe they should finish the small bottle of vitamins first.
But, when she got back to their bunk and Corrie took out the small bottle and tipped it, nothing came out. No matter which way she turned it or how hard she shook it, not another drop appeared!
In many such ways the Spirit continued to move in their lives even in those persecutions, working in & through them to save others for Christ, even enemies. They were just regular people, old women who had given themselves to Christ, learning how when younger to submit and depend on the work of Christ’s Spirit. They and their family are now with the Lord, but the accounts of their living by the Spirit still lead others to Christ.
