I really, really like to play with trees

I've been reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. It tells her story as she grew up in Holland with her deeply Christian family, then chronicles her activities in hiding Jews during the German occupation of Holland during WWII. And it tells of her arrest and subsequent time in prison and concentration camps.

Now I've read this book before, but somehow whenever I would read it, I never really pictured it. I sort of conjured up Holocaust pictures I've seen, but it was never really real. This time as I read, I put myself in Corrie's place. When she tells of her arrest, I pictured soldiers coming into MY house and forcing me and my parents to leave it. What would it be like, to be in your house, where you normally feel safe and secure, and how surreal would it be to just leave it? It would still look normal, but you would be leaving, perhaps forever. When Corrie and her sister Betsie were separated from their father and brothers, I pictured leaving my dad behind, never knowing if I would see him again. And when Corrie and Betsie arrived at the concentration camp, I went into the barracks with them, squeezed into claustrophobic bunks where there wasn't enough room to sit up or roll over, and the place was crawling with fleas. All the while sustaining myself from the Scripture that they always had with them.

Reading that book has now given me a thirst for more Scripture! As it says in Psalm 19:9-11: "The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward."

The Scriptures are worth more than MUCH pure gold. They were worth more than food and rest to Corrie and Betsie ten Boom while they were in a concentration camp. And I want them to be worth more to me than anything else I do. I want my music to be more important to me this semester. I want to work as unto the LORD, not for men, since I know that I will receive an inheritance from the LORD as my reward! I want to do everything, whether I eat or drink or whatever I do, unto the glory of God. Soli deo Gloria.

School starts tomorrow. I only pray that this semester will be for Him. Because if it is for Him, it will be good. It will be amazing.