"Hope is a good thing, perhaps the best thing."

This is, I'm sure, a mis-quote of a line from the film, The Shawshank Redemption. Stephen King wrote the novel on which it was based, and I can't help but wonder if he gave thought to the message of The Bible when interjecting this thought in a letter from a prison escapee to a recent parolee.

The analogy of this world and our bondage to sin as being like a prison is often alluded to in sermons, books, and film. A friend with whom I work was taken to Dekalb County Jail on February third of this year on a domestic complaint that was filed two years ago in Chicago, and he stayed there for ten days. His name will be cleared of the charges, but his experience of going to jail and not knowing when he would be free left a deep impression on him.

As he told me of his experience, his voice was "filled" with a lack of hope. I wish I could have chosen better words for that sound; but, it was just that, a fullness that expressed emptiness. He said, "Once you are in there, man, they've got you, and you don't know when, how, or even if you will ever be free again."

I'm reminded of my sin. It has me. I sometimes think, hopelessly, that I don't know when, how, or even if I will ever be free of it. But, I have a letter from the only one who has ever broken sin's prison bars. Indeed, he is the one who paroled me from my sentence of death for sin's sake. This letter epresses how hope is a good thing, perhaps the best thing left in this world. It promises me citizenship into the Kingdom of Heaven, and it says my filthy prison uniform will be changed into a pure white robe.