Part two in a series of advice Casper ten Boom gave his little girl.
It was like flipping through the pages of a book. People, animals, and buildings were in sight for just a moment and then disappeared again. Passed by the train, as it hurried along.
Corrie stared out the window. Her arm rested upon its sill; her head upon her hand. Bare legs swung back and forth, black shoes tapping the wooden bench in front of her. Her thoughts wandered far from the farmland her eyes were watching.
“Papa.” She turned to look at her father who was sitting beside her.
Casper ten Boom wore his best suit — a brown tweed — and a matching hat. “Yes, Corrie.”
“What is sex sin?” Her blue eyes were filled with curiosity. She’d heard the word in a poem they’d read at school. She was fairly sure “sex” meant whether you were a boy or a girl and she knew “sin” made her Aunty Jans angry, but she had no idea what the two meant together.
Casper said nothing. He had looked at her, then down at his watch. Now, he began to wind it. Why didn’t he answer?
With a furrowed brow, Corrie’s eyes returned to the window and she wondered, harder than ever, what the word meant.
Finally, the train pulled into the station. They were home. Casper rose from his seat and lifted his briefcase down from the rack overhead. He set the leather bag on the floor. “Will you carry that for me, Corrie?”
Corrie looked at him in surprise. Casper was a watch maker; his case, full of clock parts, was much too heavy for her! Nevertheless, she obeyed. She took hold of the handle and tried with all her might to lift the bag, but she couldn’t even get it off the ground.
“Papa, it’s too heavy for me.”
Casper smiled. “Yes.” He reached down and lifted the briefcase himself. “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now, you must trust me to carry it for you.”
Corrie knew he was talking about her question — he had answered it. At least, he had explained why he didn’t answer it.
A Father’s Wisdom
Casper was a good father.
He knew his little girl well. He knew what she was and wasn’t ready to understand. He knew it was his role to protect her and carry the things she was not ready to bear.
Corrie’s question didn’t force his hand. He knew she didn’t need an explanation – she wasn’t ready to receive the knowledge she was asking for. So, as a good father, he said nothing. Nothing except “trust me.”
Corrie did.
In her own telling of the story, Corrie recollected: “I was satisfied. More than satisfied – wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions – for now I was content to leave them in my father’s keeping.”
The One Who Bears Our Burdens
Corrie later learned she could trust her Heavenly Father in the same way.
When Corrie was in her fifties, she and several members of her family were arrested by the Nazi’s for hiding Jews. She and her sister, Betsie were sent to Ravensbruck, an infamous extermination camp in Germany. Here, they were daily surrounded by terrible cruelty and seemingly needless suffering. In the face of these things, Corrie constantly recalled the lesson her father had taught her that day on the train.
“I seized Betsie’s arm as the command came to march again, more to steady myself than her. It was Father’s traincase once again. Such cruelty was too much to grasp, too much to bear. Heavenly Father, carry it for me!”
That prayer was often on Corrie’s lips.
She didn’t dwell on the evil. She didn’t allow it to fill her thoughts. She didn’t try to understand it. Instead she entrusted it to her Father again and again.
In Conclusion
“It would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.” Casper had said.
In the midst of a world full of impurity and sin, Corrie’s father was there to shelter her. In the midst of a world full of cruelty and suffering, her Heavenly Father did the same.
The terrible circumstances of Ravensbruck were not Corrie’s to carry. They would have been too heavy for her. She cast these cares on the One who cared for her and found peace.
If you’re carrying a load that is too heavy for you, know that you don’t have to. You too have a good Father, will you trust the heavy things to His keeping?
In Christ
Quiana
*Facts and quotes were taken from Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place.
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