The Lord Frees the Prisoner

“The Lord sets the prisoner free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners.” -Psalm 7b, 8, 9a (ESV).

     The prisoner propelled his wheel chair down the walkway from the large prison to the gate. A guard walked beside him. When they reached the gate, the guard knew the combination to open the gate, and the man propelled himself across that line from imprisonment for twenty years to freedom. The prisoner’s debt to society had been paid. Ahead lay a future of uncertainty, but without the constraints and restrictions of prison. Even though the gate closed behind him, only the Lord could set the prisoner free, like opening the eyes of the blind, to trust that which lay ahead. Only the Lord could watch over the sojourner and lift him up, helping to supply his needs in the free world.

     The morning’s overcast sky had faded to bright sunlight as friends waited for the prisoner’s release. They had come to give him transportation to his destination, a far distance from the prison. The flags on tall poles outside the prison unfurled in the morning breeze. These symbols of freedom of nation and state seemed to be waving a welcome to the prisoner, a visible reminder that, as we often hear, “freedom is not free.”

     Across the many miles from prison to the releasee’s destination was beautiful countryside that brought into vision one majestic landscape after another. Twice hawks rose and winged their way into the sky. The driver and the other passenger did not notice the hawks, but the releasee was delighted to see these stately birds as they rose in flight.

     Cattle grazing in pastures were identified by him as to their breed. Baled hay in just-mown fields was noted as food for winter’s store and bounty from God’s hands. Upon arriving near the mountains, his former home, the horizon lay in azure lines. With joy he exulted in seeing the mountains. He was able to identify and name the highest peaks. His delight and rejoicing in the beauty of nature was evident in words of thanks from his lips as the travelers proceeded northward. 

     In prearrangement with the prisoner’s counselor, I had agreed I would provide safe and dependable transportation for the freed man to his parole destination. He was not a stranger to me. I had visited him in prison, and for fourteen years I had “taught him by correspondence,” because he had asked me to be his instructor in creative writing. As we ate lunch, he quoted one of the poems he had composed in prison, one that he had both penned and memorized, anticipating the day of his release.

     That day’s journey and the prisoner’s release taught me so much about the mercy of a loving God and the importance of gratitude. Twenty years is a long time to be in prison, to be confined and restricted. God sets the prisoner free from bad memories, from sins that restrain and hamper, from weights too heavy to bear. God offers freedom to newness of life with Him and provides safety for the sojourner. -Ethelene Dyer Jones 09.15.2016