Corrie ten Boom and the Father Who Walked Into Darkness

In February 1944, the Gestapo raided the ten Boom home in Haarlem, Holland, arresting the entire family for harboring Jewish refugees. Corrie ten Boom's elderly father, Casper, was eighty-four years old. He could have avoided arrest — the officers offered to release him if he promised to stop sheltering Jews. His answer was immediate: "If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to anyone who knocks."

Casper ten Boom chose to walk into the darkness with those he loved. He was transferred to Scheveningen Prison, where he died ten days later. He never wavered, never bargained for his own comfort while others suffered. His presence in that prison was not incidental — it was chosen.

Isaiah declares that in all Israel's affliction, the Lord Himself was afflicted. He did not observe their suffering from a comfortable distance. He did not send instructions while remaining untouched. The Angel of His Presence saved them — not through remote command, but through intimate proximity. The Almighty drew near, bore their grief, and carried them as a father carries a child.

Casper ten Boom gave us a faint human echo of this divine truth. But God does what no earthly father fully can — He enters every prison, every exile, every dark night of the soul, and He carries His people through. His lovingkindness is not a policy. It is a Presence.