The Hiding Place

By: Corrie ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill / Narrated By: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

MAGNIFICENT!!!

Oh eeeeeons ago, whenst my brothers, sister and I were but yea-high to insects and our Mom was finding her place with God, she’d gather us around and read to us at night. One of the most glorious books she ever read to us was The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom and her family during the time of Nazis and Resistance and Concentration Camps. While I absolutely found it mesmerizing, at the time it also kinda sorta terrified me: What if the world became such a place again? How would I react? I didn’t think there was ANY bravery within me. So I felt a sense of guilt whilst listening to it all while feeling such wonder also.

Since then, Life has chucked a few devastating experiences my way and I can say that, if courage isn’t within me? Well then, at least resilience is. So? PHEW!

Still, it hasn’t been until now, the world in chaos, that I’ve thought: Gee, I need some Inspiration!

Oh huzzah huzzah huzzah cuz this is one HELLUVA grand Listen!

Europe is sloooowly coming under the fist of that man in Germany, Hitler (Corrie and her family live in Haarlem in the Netherlands), but life in the ten Boom household runs like the clocks and watches they fix and sell. Family is all important, there’s always stew on the stove for the hungry coming off the street, and each day the Bible is turned to and read aloud. Perhaps, all think, war can be avoided.

But atrocities start hitting home as the years progress, and the ten Booms will NOT turn away anyone, Jewish, from the Resistance, NOBODY, who needs help. They don’t just follow the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, they live the words in thoughts, words, and oh the many deeds.

Someone is trusted who should NOT have been, but Corrie and her family would NEVER not help. They are found out and all who come to meet them at the shop are swooped up in this Nazi ambush. They’re asked repeatedly where the Jews are (There’s a secret room hidden behind the walls), and as they’re all taken to be questioned and imprisoned, Corrie’s only thought is for them, trapped within the hiding place, guards around the home.

This is a brilliant Listen where EVERYthing that makes life good and wonderful is covered. Set in solitary confinement? Corrie sees a lone ant come in through a crack, and she marvels at his perfection, this new friend of hers, crumbles a bit of her meager meals for him and his compatriots, visitors she thanks God for.

When Corrie and Betsie are sent to Concentration Camps, they spread the word of God (Because, you see, their small Bible just happened to escape confiscation: A miracle!) to the hopeless. Along the way, Betsie is glowing and joyous: So many souls hungering for Hope and words of faith and healing. To the point where she dreams of a home at the end of the war where all can worship and heal (Yes, says Corrie—thinking of the inmates, when actually Betsie was thinking of just how emotionally hurt the guards might be, how they will need to be comforted by Jesus!). Absolutely stunning the way the entirety was crafted from little miracles piling up into huge miracles; where the presence of the fleas that torment them are given up to the Lord in gratitude and which, it turns out, are the reason their Bible studies are not interrupted and condemned—the guards hate the fleas!).

It’s a heartbreaker, and it’s so uplifting at the same time and when all is said and done. At first, as this audiobook sat in my Library for YEARS, it was because I was disappointed that Wanda McCaddon was the narrator. I’d hoped for a European narrator, p’raps with a proper accent—cuz that, thought I, would make it sooo much more compelling. But nope, I started this, looking for blessings, and McCaddon totally delivered. She has the voice of an older woman, here a spinster, and her voice gets so emotional. When Corrie is grateful, the listener feels blessings rain down upon the self. When she’s horrified, the world feels dark and dangerous. And for Betsie? McCaddon always uses joy and wonder to where it feels like we’re listening to an angel on Earth. Brava, Ms. McCaddon—I’m sooo sorry I waited until now to listen!

But, I gotta tell ya, now was the perfect time. My husband and I juuuust started a Gratitude Journal for our 27th Anniversary, and this book, the love within it, has inspired most of my entries as I’m looking at each new day with different eyes. Lemme wander back to see if the barn swallows are in their nest. Lemme look down and notice the purple flowers on the way to the Post Office.

Lemme listen to this story again and again and again…!

Included in the Audible Plus Catalog with free listening for Audible Members.