“The safest place to be is at the center of God’s will.”

We’ve been talking here lately about “Clichés we love,” and that cliché is one of the most popular.

The words are often traced to a book called The Hiding Place, the memoir of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker during World War II. Corrie and her sister Betsie hid Jews from the Nazis in their home as part of the underground resistance movement.

One night, as an air battle raged overhead, Corrie couldn’t sleep. She heard Betsie in the kitchen and joined her for tea. Then a nearby explosion rattled the house. When the battle was over, Corrie went back to bed in the dark. She cut her hand on a jagged, ten-inch piece of shrapnel that was on her pillow. Frightened, Corrie ran to show it to Betsie. She started to say, “Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen….”

But Betsie interrupted. She said, “Don’t say it, Corrie! There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s world. And no places are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety—Oh Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it.”

Corrie and Betsie knew their Bibles. They knew that the Jews were God’s chosen people. They believed that it was God’s will that they should protect them.

In 1944, the Nazis raided their home, and Corrie, Betsie, and their father were arrested. Only Corrie survived the Nazi prisons.

So what does it mean to be safe in God’s will?

For thirty years, our church has supported church planting efforts in Ukraine.  Members of our church’s mission team visited there in 2018 and got to know the pastors of churches near Kyiv. Our mission team has continued to support them with prayer, instruction, and monetary gifts. As I write this, those pastors are driving people to relative safety from Russian aggression, then turning around and heading back into danger to rescue more.

Like Corrie and Betsie ten Boom, they’re at the center of God’s will.