IDENTIFY WITH THE LOST

In her famous book and film, "The Hiding Place" Corrie ten Boom tells the story of a Dutch Christian family, her family, who had a heart for the Jewish people. Her grandfather Wilhelm started a weekly prayer group in 1844 in the city of Haarlem, near Amsterdam for the salvation of the Jews. This weekly prayer meeting continued uninterrupted until 1944 when the ten Boom family was sent to a concentration camp for helping Jews to flee from the Nazi persecution in Holland.

Corrie tells a curious story about her father Caspar ten Boon. When the Jews were forced to wear the "Star of David," Casper lined up for one. He wore it because he wanted to identify himself with the people for whom he and his family had been praying for all those years. He was prepared to be so completely identified with the Jews that he was willing to wear a sign of shame and suffer persecution for the sake of the people he loved. He didn't have to wear the Star, but he chose to.

(SOURCE: Ajai Prakash, "Dare to Take A Stand!" 7/18/08)