Corrie ten Boom and the Sister Who Wandered

In the years before World War II, Corrie ten Boom's father Casper kept a watchmaker's shop in Haarlem, Netherlands. What few people remember is how he raised his children — not with rigid discipline, but with what Corrie called "hands that guided without gripping." When young Corrie struggled to learn the craft, Casper would place his weathered hands over hers, steadying the tiny screwdriver, teaching her fingers to feel the delicate mechanisms. He never seized the tool away in frustration.

When Corrie's older sister Betsie fell gravely ill as a young woman, Casper refused to leave her bedside. Neighbors urged him to tend his shop, to protect his livelihood. He simply said, "How can I turn away from my own child?"

This is the ache at the heart of Hosea 11. The Almighty speaks not as a distant judge but as a parent who taught Israel to walk, who bent down to feed them, who held them with "cords of human kindness." And when they turned away — worshipping idols, forgetting the One who healed them — God's response was not cold fury but a father's torn heart: "How can I give you up, Ephraim?"

Like Casper ten Boom steadying small hands over watchmaker's tools, the Most High never stops reaching for His wandering children. His compassion grows warm and tender, because He is God and not a mortal. His love does not let go.