Keep on loving each other as brothers”. – Hebrews13:1
Ravensbruck 1944. A young Dutch woman is in the hospital barracks, giving up hope. Where there remains no courage to live, the body gives up. Though it is absolutely forbidden to go into the hospital barracks, Corrie and four other Dutch women try to go as close as possible to the young woman to encourage her, motivated by compassion and love. They know which window she lies behind. When they arrive, the shutters are closed. So, they pray that someone will open the shutters. One of the guards walks by and opens them. But then the window is locked, and they cannot open it from the outside. They pray again and a Polish nurse opens the window from inside. Now Corrie walks to the window and starts to encourage the young woman. Again, the guard walks by and slaps Corrie hard on her back. Corrie goes back to the four other women, and they pray that no one will walk by anymore. Then Corrie continues to comfort and encourage this young sick woman and reminds her of the fact that Christ is Victor and that He is always with her.
Thirty years before, Corrie’s father had given her the key to love and compassion. At that time, Corrie was crying her eyes out, because the young man, whom she loved dearly, unexpectedly came to her house and introduced his new fiancée to her, which tore down all her dreams and hopes to share her future life with him.
Her father, after a while, climbed up to her bedroom, sat next to her and waited until she calmed down a bit and said: “Corrie, love is the strongest force in the world. When love is hold back, we can do two things: we can either silence and kill love so that no one can hurt us anymore or we can ask God to open other ways to share our love. If we cannot share love in the normal, human way then God can teach us to love in His perfect way and pour out His love in our hearts”.
God is Love. Again and again, He can find ways through which we can love our neighbor. “We love because he first loved us,” (1 John 4:19).