A Clerical Error and the Gate of Life

On December 28, 1944, Corrie ten Boom stood in line at Ravensbrück concentration camp, a place synonymous with death. Her sister Betsie had died in her arms just days earlier. Corrie had every reason to believe she would follow. The camp held over 90,000 women during its operation, and thousands never left alive.

Then a guard called her name — not for the gas chamber, but for release. A clerical error had placed her on the discharge list. Corrie walked through those iron gates in stunned disbelief, clutching her few belongings, her mind unable to reconcile what was happening. She had entered that camp expecting death. She left carrying life and a calling that would span decades of ministry across sixty nations.

She later learned that one week after her release, every woman her age in the camp was sent to the gas chambers.

The women in Matthew 28 walked toward a tomb at dawn, carrying burial spices, their hearts heavy with the finality of death. They expected a sealed stone and a cold body. Instead, they found an open grave, a shining angel, and the most staggering words ever spoken: "He is not here; He has risen."

Sometimes the Almighty meets us precisely where we expect death and hands us life instead. The tomb could not hold Him. The story was not over. It had only just begun.