Betsie Goes Home

“If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the deepest place, you are there too.” — from Psalm 139

Betsie was the gentlest person in Barracks 28. She was weaker than Corrie, but in some ways she was the stronger of the two, because her faith was so deep and calm. She even felt sorry for the people who were cruel to them.

In the evenings the sisters made plans together. When they got home, they would open a house for people coming out of the camps who had nowhere to go. And they would go to America and tell everyone what God had done for them.

But Betsie was growing weaker and weaker. She became very ill with a high fever, and at last she could no longer walk. She was carried on a stretcher to the camp hospital. As she went, a Polish woman knelt beside her and prayed. That afternoon Corrie visited her once more.

The next morning, 16 December 1944, Corrie looked in at the hospital window. Betsie had died. She was fifty-nine years old. When Corrie went to see her, she found that Betsie’s face looked peaceful and young again, as if God had given her a little glimpse of heaven.

In a book written many years later, Corrie remembered Betsie saying that they must tell people that God’s love is deeper than even the deepest pit. That night a Russian woman had nowhere to sleep. Corrie made room for her in the place where Betsie used to lie, and the two women hugged.

It is very sad when someone we love dies. But for everyone who belongs to Jesus, death is not the end. There is no place so deep or so dark that God is not already there, and he never stops loving us.

Dear God, thank you that your love is deeper than the deepest place. Please comfort everyone who is missing someone they love. Amen.