Listening to the news this past year has been very depressing and fills many people with fear for the future. There are stories of wars in three continents, Sudan in Africa, Ukraine in Europe and Israel in Asia. There have been horror stories of rampant murders, rape and pillage from all sides. Children being taken away from their families, adults being held hostages and soldiers being taken captive. Prison camps and cells of isolation are all these people have to look forward too. In these stories there is little freedom. After a year of being in captivity there is no talk of release or freedom for the vast majority, just more hopelessness. This reminded me of a story I had read that, during the second world war a Glaswegian professor named MacDonald who, along with a Scottish chaplain, had bailed out of an airplane behind German lines. They were captured and put in a prison camp. A high wire fence separated the Americans from the British, and the Germans made it next to impossible for the two sides to communicate. However, MacDonald was put in the American barracks and the chaplain was housed with the British, even though both were British. Every day the two men would meet at the fence and exchange a greeting. Unknown to the guards, the Americans had a little homemade radio and were able to get news from the outside, something more precious than food in a prison camp. Every day, MacDonald would take a headline or two to the fence and share it with the chaplain in the ancient Gaelic language, indecipherable to the Germans. One day, news came over the little radio that the German High Command had surrendered and the war was over. MacDonald took the news to his friend, then stood and watched him disappear into the British barracks. A moment later, a roar of celebration came from the barracks. Life in that camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards, even laughing at the dogs. When the German guards finally heard the news three nights later, they fled into the dark, leaving the gates unlocked. The next morning, the British and Americans walked out as free men. Yet they had truly been set free three days earlier by the news that the war was over. Life can put up many barriers for people and we can live in captivity, hostages to our own ideas and thoughts. The prophet Isaiah, speaking about himself, says in his book Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;.’ Are you broken hearted, do you feel like you are a captive and in prison? Today you can be set free because just like Isaiah, Jesus Christ says the same words you can be set free. Christ gives liberty to those who believe in him. He can set you free from being a hostage in your own life of sin. With freedom comes peace with yourself and with God. Freedom allows you to explore, create and walk your own life. Though the apostle Paul warns us in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 to, ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.’ Christ can set you free just like these men in the prison camp but we must not let anything take away this freedom. We must not return to the old way of thinking and living. The guards didn’t leave for 3 more days but the prisoners knew they were truly free, nothing could take away their happiness. Jesus says ‘If the Son (Jesus) therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’, in the gospel of John 8 verse 36. Are you searching for freedom? Turn to Christ and he will set you free.
P. Pilgrim pilgrimway101@yahoo.com
