The first time I went to Rome, Becky took me and four other women with her and told us that we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything, so we each needed to choose one thing that we wanted to see.  I chose the prison they held Paul in.  I wanted to see where he wrote his letters to us. (Ephesians is written “...to the faithful in Jesus Christ.”  That’s us.  

I expected walls, a locked door, a window...you know, a jail.  No, it was a cistern.  A place carved down into rock, probably granite--a cavern underground.  It was small, with an opening at the top around 2 to 3 feet round to get into it--with a ladder, which the jailer withdrew.  No way out.   No windows.  No light.  It made the verse he wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:13) “The cloke that I left at Troas  with Carpus, when you come, bring it with you...and the books, but especially the parchments.”

Paul was trapped, cold, in a dark damp place. He wanted, he needed, his coat.  He also wanted something to read.  

When bad things happen to you, there may be a greater purpose God has in mind.  Paul would never have had time to write his great letters--that survive for us to read--unless he had been locked up.  He had been roaming the world for years spreading the gospel and preaching.  Now, he is locke up and is writing.  And we have his words.  Thank God.