The story of the miraculous cough drops

The Hiding Place, is a memoir written by Connie Ten Boom, a Christian who hid Jews during the Second world war. Connie and her sister Betsie, end up in a concentration camp, where Betsie becomes extremely ill with a chronic cough. Connie gives her cough drops each day, and also to other women in the camp who are unwell. Connie feels the desire to save the cough drops just for her sister, but Betsie selflessly urges her to share them with the others.

The funny thing is that Connie starts to notice that the tiny bottle doesn’t run out. She can’t understand how, after dispensing so many drops there is still some left over, even when the volume of liquid in the bottle is extremely low. Eventually the bottle does become empty, but for a while it seemed, there was a miracle, when it was needed.

As the cost of living rises, and money becomes tighter, there is the human tendency to resist giving, to keep for ourselves, to squirrel away, to stock up and save resources only for ourselves, or our nearest and dearest.

I am challenged each time I go into Florence, to find a few spare coins for those who ask for money on the streets. I notice the all too human thoughts in my head, I haven’t got enough, I’ve just walked past them, do I really have to go back and give? What if they spend it on drugs?

What if we instead had faith? I’m not talking about the kind of faith that comes from throwing away tons of money in the belief that ‘abundance’ is going to come our way. I’m talking about learning to listen to calling to give when we can.

Spiritually deceptive teachings tell us that if we want to improve the situation here on earth we need to ‘turn inwards,’ we need to ‘raise our vibration’ and do the things that bring us joy so that we can shift the collective consciousness. Such teachings tell us that we need to work on ourselves, and heal our pain, and then everything will miraculously fall into place.

While there is no doubt much truth in the need for healing and kindness to ourselves, it is not the full story.

What we also need to do, is to take a good honest look at ourselves, and see where lack of faith causes us to behave in selfish ways, to complain about our bills while forgetting that somewhere out there is a mother, who hasn’t eaten today because she’s saving money for her child’s school uniform.

We cannot reach for the stars, and ‘awaken’ collectively until we’ve been confronted the parts of ourselves where we think only of ourselves. This is not just for the benefit of others. It is a natural law of our world that caring for others is benefits ourselves too.

As I walked away from the man on the streets this morning, these words came to me,

‘Blessed is he who considers the poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will sustain him on his sickbed.’ - Psalm 41