Free!

“We have escaped like a bird from a trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!” — from Psalm 124

Three days after Betsie died, Corrie heard her name called out when the prisoners were lined up to be counted. She was being let go! But first she had to wait in the camp hospital until her swollen legs got better.

In the hospital lay a young girl named Oelie, who had a learning disability. She was very ill and crying for her mother. Night after night Corrie told her about Jesus. On the last night Oelie could say, in her own words, that Jesus loved her and was getting a place ready for her. Corrie understood then why she had been made to wait. All those years teaching her special classes in Haarlem had led to this.

At last Corrie walked out through the gate. The journey home through Germany took several days. She had almost no food, and some people were unkind to her, but others helped her and fed her.

In the Dutch town of Groningen she went to a hospital. One of the nurses had once been a leader in Corrie’s girls’ clubs! They fed her, gave her a bath and clean clothes, and she slept in a real bed. When she heard music again, she cried. Her life, she felt, had been given back to her as a gift.

Years later Corrie was told that she had been let go by mistake. Nobody knows for sure. But Corrie never doubted who had set her free. It was God.

Like a bird let out of a trap, Corrie was free. Sometimes we don’t know exactly how God helps us, but we can always say thank you to him for it.

Dear God, thank you for every time you have helped me, even when I didn’t know how. Help me to use my life to help others. Amen.