Corrie ten Boom's Father and the Prodigal Nation

In the winter of 1944, Casper ten Boom was eighty-four years old when the Gestapo arrested him for hiding Jewish families in his Haarlem watchshop. His children begged him to stop, to think of his age, his frailty. But Casper had spent decades teaching his sons and daughters to walk in righteousness — literally holding their small hands as they delivered bread to hungry neighbors during the First World War, bending down to show them how to wind a watch spring with patience rather than force.

When the Nazi officer gave Casper one final chance to secure his release — simply promise to stop sheltering Jews — the old watchmaker replied, "If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to anyone who knocks."

He died ten days later in Scheveningen prison. He never saw his children freed. But his daughter Corrie survived Ravensbruck and spent the next thirty-three years traveling the world, teaching forgiveness to former enemies — carrying forward exactly what her father had placed in her hands.

This is the heartbeat of Hosea 11. The Almighty speaks as a parent who taught Israel to walk, who bent down to feed them, who led them with cords of human kindness. And when they turned away, His heart recoiled within Him. "I will not execute my fierce anger," God declares, "for I am God, not a mortal." The love that taught small hands to do justice does not let go — not even when the child wanders into the darkest night.