Thank God For The Fleas

“Thank God for the Fleas”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

1st Thessalonians is believed to be the earliest existing letter in the Bible that is written by the Apostle Paul.

It was written to a young church that was undergoing tremendous persecution, and they were mourning the loss of a number of their members.

It’s a letter of encouragement, and it’s a letter of how to keep faith, even amidst the most difficult circumstances of life.

And this faith has proven to enable people down through the ages to experience a joy and peace which are inexplicable, and beyond understanding.

One of the best examples of this is found in the book, The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom.

The Hiding Place contains the true story of the Ten Boom family who saved a number of Jews from the Nazis during World War 2 by hiding them in their home.

Eventually, the Ten Boom’s were caught and sent to a Concentration Camp themselves, where the entire family except for Corrie would die.

The book chronicles Corrie and her sister Betsie as they live out their faith in the death camp.

If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it.

I have to say, it is my favorite and I have read it a number of times.

When Corrie and Betsie are taken to their barracks at the concentration camp they are nearly overcome by what they face.

Their situation would threaten to drive anyone to absolute despair.

The quarters were terribly overcrowded, they had to sleep on horrible-smelling straw and the place was infested by fleas that drove them nearly crazy as they bit and bit and bit them incessantly.

They had miraculously been able to smuggle a Bible into the camp, and the Scripture verse we are looking at this morning proved to be God’s answer to Corrie’s question, “How can we live in such a place?”

“Show us, show us how,” Betsie started saying in such a matter-of-fact manner that Corrie didn’t realize her sister was praying.

The distinction between prayer and the rest of life had nearly vanished for Betsie.

“Corrie,” she said excitedly, “God’s given us the answer.

In the Bible this morning.”

And they re-read the words from 1 Thessalonians that we just read, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

With Betsie’s prompting, they gave thanks for everything about the barracks: the foul-smelling room, the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, and suffocating crowds of fellow prisoners,

and since it says to thank God in all circumstances, Betsie insisted they also thank God for the fleas.

Corrie thought this was too much.

“Betsie, there is no way even God can make me thankful for a flea.”

“Give thanks in all circumstances,’ Betsie quoted.

It doesn’t say, ‘In pleasant circumstances only.’

Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

And so, wrote Corrie, “we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas.

But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.”

(pause)

There is no doubt that life contains many horrible circumstances.

What difficulties are you facing this morning?

Where is your head at?

Is there anything that is threatening to drive you to the edge of despair?

On a quick reading, the instructions Paul gives in 1st Thessalonians 5 sound like instructions that someone might give to their child before dropping them off at another kid’s house: “Always be respectful.

Listen closely.

Pick up after yourself.

Say, ‘Please and thank you.’

Call me if you need anything.

In fact, just call me period.”

And the list goes on.

A lot of the time those words aren’t even heard and they have to be repeated over and over again…

…and they still might not get heard.

The same might go for us when reading Paul’s instructions…it might be sort of like when Charley Brown’s teachers’ voice goes, “Wah, wah, wah, wah, waah.”

We might not even hear the words.

But they take on a new meaning when we realize that the church they were written to had been grieving over the death of some of its members and some still faced a possible martyr’s death in the near future.

If we feel like we don’t have anything to be thankful for this year Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the basis of thanksgiving even in the midst of grief and fear.

There is nothing that is out of the reach of God’s grace and power.

God is always faithful.

God’s love is with us forever.

Death, pain, suffering, and trouble do not get the final word.

We believe in and await a Savior Who has conquered death itself and therefore, through faith in Him, we can experience God’s peace even in the midst of what would seem to be hell on earth.