Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Dear God…thank you for the fleas. Corrie ten Boom was an amazing lady. She and her sister were taken prisoner in World War II by the Nazis. What was their crime? They were hiding Jews to keep them from the camps and ovens that the Nazis had built to “take care of the Jewish problem.” If there is a list of sad chapters in human history, the holocaust has to be near the top. The horror and evil of that time and by those people, well, it is beyond description.
Corrie, by nothing short of the intervention of God, survived the camp while her younger sister Betsie did not. One of the stories that Corrie tells is a beautiful story of seeing God’s mercies in the hardest of places. As I mentioned, Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, were prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Her family was caught hiding Jews in their home and were thrown into Ravensbruck Camp prison. During her imprisonment, Corrie tells of a time of thanksgiving in her book, The Hiding Place.
Corrie and Betsie were able to smuggle a tattered bible into the flea infested barracks, which Nazi officers would never enter. When the passage “Be thankful in all circumstances” [1 Thessalonians 5:18] was revealed to Betsie, she insisted they be thankful for everything, and began praying aloud. Betsie thanked God for all things, but when she thanked Him for even the fleas, Corrie disagreed. She hated fleas. They were nasty, pesky little bugs that kept biting her legs, and she would not be thankful for them. However, Betsie persisted, and Corrie succumbed to being thankful IN all circumstances.
Later, they heard the Nazi officers refused to enter the barracks because of the fleas. The fleas kept them safe from being molested and abused. Dozens of desperate women were free to hear the comforting, hope-giving Word of God, and God made sure their deepest needs were met. And it was all because of fleas…and may I add, God sent fleas?
When we can learn to look carefully, we can also learn to thank God fully for the smallest of things and craziest of things. Had it not been for the fleas, Corrie, Betsie and the rest of the women in their barracks would have known an even greater depravity of men. So, let me ask you a question. What is there in your life that you need to thank God for? What inconvenience or disruption is there that God could be using to teach you, to show you, to love you? Let me encourage you to pause and look carefully each day. And, if you should see a flea for two, be sure and remember how our gracious God can use everything and anything for our good and His glory. He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 