She paces in her cage, tripping over her two newborn cubs that she recently birthed as a result of artificial insemination. Each day thousands of people file by the beautiful, three-hundred-fifty-pound, Siberian Tiger. A piece of raw meat lays, untouched, near the small iron grate through which her keepers had recently thrust it. Elaborate scenery, including “play-things,” decorated the quarter-acre enclosure. Everything was state of the art, as far as zoos are concerned.

“Why the pacing?” someone might ask. “She has food, water, company and safety. This must really be the good life. How come she has paced so much that she has worn a path around the perimeter of her pen?”

The answer is rather obvious. She paces because everything about her life is unnatural. She was born to be free. She was born to run, fight and survive. She was engineered to expend energy. Her body wanted to experience episodes of elevated blood pressure and adrenaline rushes. She was designed to mate and hunt for her young. In the zoo she is alive, but not really living.

Ironically, all the provision and comfort provided her by the zoo diminishes her life – because she is not in her native environment. Because everything is provided for her, one might think she would just sit back and enjoy life. Instead, she wears a path near the perimeter wall that holds her captive, eyeing the door in case it might be left ajar. She has a deep longing to be free.

Sometimes people feel a similar restlessness. They may have the comforts of life, but they are lacking purpose and meaning for which they were created. They may be playing the games society invents, but they long for supernatural encounters in which they strain and struggle, but in which they also grow and overcome. 

Many people think of sin as things we do that we are not supposed to do. It is often viewed as the “forbidden fruit.” But Scripture describes it as a cage that holds us captive. Sin can sometimes provide counterfeits for the important things in life. However, sin usually cheapens, entangles and squeezes the life out of its victims. Often, people who seem to have everything, wander through life looking for meaning, so frustrated that they sometimes despair of life.

The Good News is that the door to that cage has been left ajar. Jesus Christ paid the price to make it possible for anyone to leave their cage and live free. Those who will follow him can live free from sin, guilt and shame. They can live a life of purpose, as they look forward to an eternal life that will follow. Their free life will not be easy, but it will be the kind of life they were designed to live. The door to freedom is open; it only takes one commitment, and they will be ushered into a life that is truly free.