A Little More Straight Talk About Mercy

Some more about the quality of mercy from Heaven in Our Hands (review is here). By the way, recently I brought up The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom to some friends and was shocked to hear that none of them had ever heard of this wonderful book. Somehow I thought that every teenager (or teenage girl anyway) went on to it after reading The Diary of Anne Frank. If you haven't read it then check your local library where they are sure to have several copies. It is a moving testimony to the power of God.

Mercy burns up the IOU's of life. It generously forgives debts, even emotional or psychological wounds. Rightly practiced, it never says, "I can forgive anything but that."

Pam Moran, who helped me with this book, provides the following account based on the experience of a Dutch Christian woman, Corrie ten Boom, During the Nazi occupation of Holland, this remarkable woman and her family were sent to Auschwitz because they had hidden Jews in their home. There Corrie soon came to hate the sneering guard who mocked their naked bodies whenever they were taken to the showers.

Corrie watched her sister die in the camp, but she survived and vowed never to return to Germany. Many years later, however, she did return for a speaking engagement. Her first talk centered on the topic of forgiveness: extending the mercy of God to those who have wronged us in some way. To her absolute horror, there, sitting in the audience, was the same guard who had so taunted them at Auschwitz.

This man could not possibly have remembered Corrie as one of his emaciated and shorn prisoners, but she would have recognized him anywhere. Yet on this occasion, he looked decidedly different; his face bore a radiant expression that suggested a dramatic transformation had taken place in his life. Nonetheless, Corrie had no desire to renew their acquaintance.

As it turned out, she had no choice. After her talk, the smiling man approached her and extended his hand. "A fine message, fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!"

Feeling only intense hatred for this person who had inflicted such pain, Corrie ten Boom heard the Lord tell her to put out her hand. She described what happened:

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

The stored-up hatred of years was melted away in a moment by the warm oil of God's mercy. Could you have endured such horrible abuse and been able to take the hand of your tormentor?