Freedom at Alcatraz

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. — Philemon 1:10                                                

A tour of the federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay left me with some unforgettable images. As our tour boat pulled into the dock, I could see why this now-closed maximum-security federal prison was once known as “The Rock.”

Later, inside the legendary Big House, I stared at shafts of light coming through heavily barred windows. Then I saw row after row of cagelike cells that housed well-known inmates such as Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

But another image made a deeper impression. Stepping into an empty cell, I saw the name “Jesus” scrawled on a wall. In another, a Bible lay on a shelf. Together they quietly spoke of the greatest of all freedoms.

Paul knew such liberty while waiting to be executed. Regarding himself as a “prisoner of Christ,” he used his incarceration to help other inmates discover what it means to be an eternally forgiven, dearly loved member of God’s family (Philem. 1:10).

Barred windows and doors represent one kind of confinement. Physical paralysis, inescapable poverty, and prolonged unemployment are others. Perhaps you endure another. None are to be desired — yet who would trade “imprisonment” with Christ for life “on the outside” without Him? — Mart De Haan   

My heart and soul imprisoned lay,

Not knowing Christ the Lord;

But since the day He set me free,

We live in one accord. — Hess

READ:Philemon 1:4-16

To be under Christ’s control

is to have true freedom.

The Bible in one year:

• Genesis 36-38; Matthew 10:21-42