Chapter 1 · 2 min read · 2 min listen
A House Full of Clocks
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love her will be blessed.” — from Psalm 122
In the old Dutch town of Haarlem, on a busy little shopping street, stands a tall, narrow house. Inside, the stairs are steep and twisty, and the rooms are on funny, different levels. The family who lived there for more than a hundred years called it the Beje. (You say it “bay-yay.”)
Downstairs was a watch shop. Corrie’s grandfather, Willem ten Boom, opened it in 1837. For a hundred years the ten Boom family mended clocks and watches in that little front room. People trusted them with their precious watches, and the ten Booms always gave them back, honestly mended.
The family remembered something else about Grandfather Willem. In 1844, they said, he heard a sermon about praying for Jerusalem. After that he gathered a few friends once a week to pray for the Jewish people. His children and grandchildren grew up with that prayer.
Corrie was born on 15 April 1892, in the city of Amsterdam, where her father had a shop at that time. Her family remembered that she came a month early and was so tiny that no one thought she would live long. But she lived to be ninety-one! Soon afterwards the family moved to Haarlem, to the Beje, and it was Corrie’s home for more than fifty years.
Corrie was the youngest. She had a big brother, Willem, and two big sisters, Betsie and Nollie. (Another baby brother had died when he was very small.) Three of her mother’s sisters, Corrie’s aunts, came to live in the Beje too. The narrow house was always full, but there was always room at the table for one more.
The ten Booms did not know it yet, but all those years of praying and making room were getting them ready for something very big. God uses the small, everyday things we do, too: our prayers, our kindness, and the room we make for other people.
Dear God, thank you for my home and my family. Help me to pray for other people, and to always make room for one more. Amen.
Talk about it together
Ask the questions first — then tap one for a note for grown-ups.
What was the Beje?
The tall, narrow house in Haarlem where the ten Boom family lived, with their watch shop downstairs.
What did Grandfather Willem begin to do every week?
The family remembered that he gathered friends once a week to pray for the Jewish people and for the peace of Jerusalem.
Who could you make room for, at your table or in your games?
Any honest answer is good here. The chapter’s point is that small, everyday kindness and prayer matter to God, and he can use them in big ways.
Chapter 1 complete
A House Full of Clocks