“Betsie, that’s too much. There’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

“Give thanks in all circumstances,” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

And so, we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong. (The Hiding Place)

This past weekend, my son Justin and I took a few days off to hunt up at my dad’s cabin in north central Pennsylvania.  It’s a 4-hour trip, so to pass the time, we listened to an audio book dramatization of “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom that I checked out of the church library.  Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were courageous, compassionate Christians who were arrested by the Nazis in World War 2 for their work in the Dutch underground protecting Jews. They were sentenced to serve out their prison time at Ravensbruck, a notorious German concentration camp for political prisoners.

When Corrie and Betsie arrived at the camp, they were almost overwhelmed. Conditions were brutal, with forced labor, starvation rations, and cruel arbitrary punishments.  The barracks were freezing cold, overcrowded, and vermin infested. One of the only comforts they had was a time of daily devotional reading and prayer that they held in the dorm every evening. They huddled around a single dimly lit light bulb and read from a small Bible they had miraculously smuggled into the camp.

During one such reading, they came upon 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Betsie took this literally, giving thanks for good things, like the precious Bible they had with them, but also the bad things- the overflowing toilets, the thin turnip soup, the overcrowded conditions, and yes, even the fleas that infested the thin straw bedding.  To Corrie, this seemed ridiculous.  How can a person give thanks for the very things that make life unbearable?

As time went on, other women became hungry for God’s word and a vibrant worship service developed right under the noses of the prison guards.  Corrie tells the story:

At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call.

There on the Lagerstrasse we were under rigid surveillance, guards in their warm wool capes marching constantly up and down. It was the same in the center room of the barracks: half a dozen guards or camp police were always present. Yet in the large dormitory room there was almost no supervision at all. We did not understand it.

One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling.

“You’re looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,” I told her.

“You know, we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,” she said. “Well–I’ve found out.” That afternoon, she said, there’d been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it.

“But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?”

Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’”

My mind rushed back to our first hours in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.

God, thank you for the fleas.

Sometimes, the very things we resent or do not understand are the vehicle God uses to advance his plan, strengthen our faith or further his kingdom.  The “fleas” that are currently tormenting you, may be an essential part of God’s larger plan in your journey towards becoming like Jesus. Can you give thanks for them. too?

This year, Pam bought everyone in our family a small pumpkin, so that each evening before dinner we can write down with a Sharpie, something that we are thankful for. Predictably, everything I have written down so far falls into the “good” category.  But what about the bad? Part of forming a lifestyle of gratitude is learning, by faith, to give thanks for the painful times and negative things, trusting that God will use them for our betterment. When we move from ThanksGiving to ThanksLiving, we learn to give thanks in all circumstances.