Good morning, everyone.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 9:25, “Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.”
The Shawshank Redemption is a prison movie. Therefore, it should come as a surprise to no one that walls play a significant part in the story. Depending on the person’s situation, that part can look quite different. In one instance, a prisoner called Red describes them in relation to a man who is about to be freed after being locked inside them for fifty years. “Believe what you want. These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. After long enough, you get so you depend on ‘em.” As it turned out, that prisoner couldn’t make it outside the walls, and he ended up committing suicide within days of his release. For Andy Dufresne, those walls were a little different. To Andy, they offered opportunity. While imprisoned, they offered him the chance to acquire funds from the state and start a prison library. Similarly, Andy was given the opportunity to get in good with the guards by doing all their income taxes, and he became the warden’s most-prized inmate as he used Andy to launder the funds that the warden was stealing. But Andy also got the opportunity to use those walls in exchange for his freedom. You see, it was a tunnel that Andy dug for over 19 years through his cell wall that allowed him to crawl to freedom one night. The same wall that crippled one man from existing without it enabled another to keep hope alive long enough to experience freedom outside it.
We all realize that walls can be invaluable as well as intolerable. Likewise, openings in those walls can be a blessing or a concern. The walls you’ve constructed in your life have a purpose as well as an effect. Some intentional, and some not. Some for good, and some less so. And so do those walls that are forced upon you. But Jesus offers you the opportunity to know the freedom of life lived out in the open. His forgiveness knows no limits, and nothing can keep out His love and understanding. And where a wall is holding you captive, He provides the strength to find your way out. It might be as chipping away a tunnel or popping out straightway in a basket. No matter what or how, Jesus can get you through.
As we seek Him today, don’t let a wall define you or confine you. Pursue Jesus and what He offers in freedom.
Have a wonderful rest of the week. I will be on vacation and will return on the 18th.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
