Gracious Forgiveness

A survivor of a concentration camp during the Holocaust, Corrie ten Boom dedicated her life to traveling and preaching about forgiveness. She told the stories of losing her family members in the war and how she had to release the bitterness and anger toward those who harmed them. She is quoted as saying, “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still,” and “God will give us the love to be able to forgive our enemies” (“The Ten Boom Family,” Ten Boom Museum, accessed January 4, 2021, https://www.tenboom.org/about-the-ten-booms/). Later in life, Corrie met one of the concentration camp guards when he attended one of her meetings. After initially struggling, she graciously forgave, embraced, and wept with him. “‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart.’ For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then. But even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit” (Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord, with Jamie Buckingham [New York: Jove Books, 1978], 55).