The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom*****

That's right ... another fiver. But it's worth it. This is the non-fiction story of Corrie ten Boom and how her family becomes involved in the underground movement hiding Jews during the Holocaust in Holland. Of course, they're caught eventually (no spoiler here - it almost seems like you shouldn't be surprised) and she and her family spend over a year in a variety of German prisons and concentration camps.

I know life can be hard. I've had my own fair share of challenges, some pretty recently, and I know that there are many people right now going through a much more difficult time than I am. But nothing we experience right now can even scratch the surface of what this family endured. And, they did it with grace, love, a smile, service, patience and dignity. Their faith is the life-line they cling to when everything else is taken from them, and they are miraculously spared from the very worst of experiences in many cases, even though they still have to endure a good measure.

But, I have to say, that's something I've learned recently about God. I know I don't normally get super-religious in this blog, but this is something that really brings it out in me. This is what I've learned recently about God: Life is suffering, like the Buddhists say. But grace is what happens when the Lord allows you to suffer only as much as you must. Now, He will let you walk up to the abyss, look down, and may even allow you to stumble along the edge and hang on by a fingernail. But He will not let you fall. The beauty of the Atonement is that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. He will take over what we cannot endure, but He loves us enough to allow us to carry the burden just as long as we can. This story is a brilliant reminder in living color of this truth.

When I read a book that has something so profound I know I'm going to find myself wishing I could re-read it again and again, I turn down the corner of the page. This "defilement" is something my husband doesn't understand (he's trained me to read paperbacks without cracking the spine of the book - a totally new concept to me once we got married - I thought that's what paperbacks were for). But, I don't like marking in books (other than my scriptures). The fold in the corner seems to be perfect - easily overlooked, but even after you flip it back up there will always exist a crease in the corner for the rest of the life of the book. I don't do it often .. The Poisonwood Bible has one, Lucky has one, The Grapes of Wrath has six. ... The Hiding Place has seventeen. Towards the end, I found myself turning down almost every page - in fact, I even tore a corner in half so that I could fold down the corner on the front and back of it. This book will have to go into my regular rotation of books I read every few years or so (now totalling 4: Peace Like a River, To Kill a Mockingbird, East of Eden, and now The Hiding Place). All of them have a common theme - there is much evil in the world around you, but if you will it to be so, there is much more good that can be found within you.