In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul writes ‘in everything give thanks’. In other words, we are to be thankful ‘in’ all circumstances, but not necessarily for all things.

This means, that even in our trying times, we need to develop a thankful heart and find things in our lives that we can be thankful for.

But Betsie ten Boom took it one step further, she thanked God for the one thing that was plaguing her, fleas. Yes, nasty, blood-sucking fleas.

Betsie, along with her sister Corrie, had been caught by the Nazis and stuck in one of Germany’s most infamous World War II concentration camps, Ravensbrück.

Their crime?

While in the Netherlands, the family helped Jews escape the holocaust, which saw six million die in Hitler’s gas chambers.

As part of this, they built a special hidden room behind one of the walls of their home where Jews would hide. They even installed a buzzer, that was used to warn them to hide in the room, if their home was being visited. It was a Dutch informant who revealed their activities to the Nazis.

The family were also Dutch Reformed Christians, and after their capture, both sisters were held in the same crowded barrack at the notorious prison camp.

While incarcerated, they had miraculously managed to smuggle in a Bible. Of course, they had to keep it secretly hidden from the eyes of the prying guards.

But their barrack was also being plagued by fleas and Corrie was actually annoyed when her sister thanked God for the fleas, after reading Paul’s injunction in Thessalonians.

Though she initially refused, Corrie recounts that she eventually thanked God for the fleas in her prayer as well.

Over the following weeks, a strange thing happened. Because the guards were basically ignoring their barracks, Corrie and Betsie felt free enough to openly hold Bible studies with the other women in their overcrowded barracks leading many of them to become Christians.

This also meant that there were fewer assaults and beatings by the guards, and it wasn’t until much later, that Corrie found out the reason?

The guards had been avoiding their barracks because of the flea infestation. The very thing that Corrie had initially been reluctant to thank God for, was the reason their barrack was spared.

Though Corrie would eventually be freed and later become a popular Christian speaker and writer, Betsie died at Ravensbrück. Of the 132,000 mostly political female prisoners who passed through the camp, 50,000 lost their lives.