Tommy caught a little bird one day. The little thing struggled hard to get away, but Tommy’s strong fingers held it tight.
Poor little bird! It loved its freedom. Just then a man going by, seeing what Tommy had, took pity on the little captive and asked him to let it go. But Tommy had no such intentions. He said it took him three hours to catch the bird and he didn’t want to let it go.
Then the kind man said, “I’ll give you a quarter for it.”
Tommy thought a moment, and then he agreed. The stranger paid him the quarter and took the little bird from his hand. He first placed it on his open hand, then waited for it to fly away. But the little thing did not yet know that it was free. Suddenly it spread it wings and soared off into the blue. As it flew away it seemed to chirp as if to say, “Thank you, kind friend, for setting me free.”
We were just like that little bird, taken captive by Satan, and held in the grip of sin. The Lord Jesus, that heavenly stranger, that blessed Man, passed by and had compassion on us. Satan does not want to let sinners go; he would hold them in his power until they perish. But the Lord Jesus is stronger than Satan, and He paid redemption’s price when He died for sin upon the cross. Now it is His joy to redeem captive sinners from Satan’s grasp, and to set them free.
Many dear boys and girls who read these lines, we know, have been set free by Him, now to thank and to praise their blessed Deliverer. Are you, dear reader, one of His freed ones? Or are you still a captive to Satan and to sin?
“Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,... but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Pet. 1: 18,19.
ML 05/07/1967