Thankful for the Fleas

We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw. We could hear the women who had arrived with us finding their places.
Suddenly I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg.
"Fleas!" I cried. "Betsie, the place is swarming with them!"
We scrambled across the intervening platforms, heads low to avoid another bump, dropping down to the aisle, and edged our way to a patch of light.
"Here! And here another one!" I wailed. "Betsie, how can we live in such a place!"
"Show us. Show us how." It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie.
"Corrie!" she said excitedly. "He's given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!"
I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch.
"It was in First Thessalonians," I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Schevingen. In the feeble light I turned the pages.
"Here it is: 'Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all...'" It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck.
"Go on," said Betsie. "That wasn't all."
"Oh yes: '... to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus--"
"That's in, Corrie! That's his answer. 'Give thanks in all circumstances!' That's what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!"
I stared at her, then around at me at the dark, foul-aired room.
"Such as?" I said.
"Such as being assigned here together."
I bit my lip. "Oh yes, Lord Jesus!"
"Such as what you're holding in your hands."
I looked down at the Bible. "Yes!" Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank you for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages."
"Yes," said Betsie. "Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear!" She looked at me expectantly. "Corrie!" she prodded.
"Oh, all right. Thank you for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds."
"Thank You," Betsie went on serenely, "for the fleas and for--"
The fleas! This was too much.
"Betsie, 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 circumstance.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us."
And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.
--
At first, Betsie and I called these [Bible] 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. We did not understand it.
--
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 hour in this place. I remembered Betsie's bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for the creatures that I could see no use for. 

-The Hiding Place; Corrie ten Boom

I recently finished The Hiding Place for the first time. It's an amazing book that everyone should read. There are so many powerful quotes and passages. This one stuck out particularly to me when I read it, because the application to my life was so obvious.
There have been a few specific situations this week where something has irritated me, and I found out later that if it hadn't been for those minor irritations, I would have missed out on an enormous blessing. I am not going to tell the story -- somehow, it seems petty to talk about my little irritations right after reading about Corrie's experience in a concentration camp as if they somehow compare. Besides, who of us can't think of our own story about the moment where we suddenly understood that God's plan really is better?
It's one thing to thank God for the big hard things, knowing it will grow us, or to look back later and say, 'oh, I get it!' It's a different ball game entirely to look at all the small, annoying things going on this afternoon -- the traffic, the scheduling issues, the lost item, the low battery, the fleas, and thank God ahead of time.
I, personally, am tired of constantly looking back and apologizing for complaining about something that turned out to be in my benefit. Maybe it's high time I just learned the lesson. Maybe it's time to have a little faith, exercise a little trust, and say 'thank you' things don't go my way. God doesn't have to prove Himself to me, but He has done so over and over again, and yet I fail to trust Him when something goes wrong.

I resolve to thank God for the fleas in my life, and rest in the knowledge that everything works to the good of those who love God, even if we don't see them. Will you join me?