The Watchmaker's Oldest Son

When a neighbor warned eighty-four-year-old Casper ten Boom that harboring Jews could mean his death, the Haarlem watchmaker did not hesitate. "It would be an honor to give my life for God's ancient people," he replied. By 1943, Casper and his daughters Corrie and Betsie had turned their narrow house above the watch shop into a refuge for Jewish men, women, and children fleeing Nazi deportation. A secret room, barely thirty inches deep, was constructed behind a false wall in Corrie's top-floor bedroom. An underground network brought supplies and forged ration cards. Over the course of the occupation, the ten Boom family helped shelter an estimated eight hundred Jews and resistance workers.

On February 28, 1944, an informant's tip brought the Gestapo to their door. Casper, Corrie, and Betsie were arrested. Casper died ten days later at Scheveningen prison. Betsie perished at Ravensbruck concentration camp that December. They paid with everything they had.

Jesus said, "I was a stranger and you invited Me in. I was in prison and you came to visit Me." The ten Booms heard those words not as poetry but as a daily assignment. Casper understood that every knock at the door was Christ knocking. Every frightened face was the face of his Lord.

Faith is not merely believing that God exists. Faith is opening the door when opening the door could cost you your life.