Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters from Tegel Prison

In the spring of 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo and locked in Tegel military prison in Berlin. He had every reason to despair. The conspiracy against Hitler that he had joined was unraveling. His wedding to Maria von Wedemeyer was indefinitely postponed. The world he had known was collapsing around him.

Yet something remarkable emerges from his prison correspondence. Rather than bitterness, Bonhoeffer's letters overflow with gratitude and an unshakable confidence in God's faithfulness. He wrote to his friend Eberhard Bethge that he had come to experience "the enrichment that has come to me through you all" — his community of believers — as one of God's sustaining gifts. He organized worship services for fellow prisoners. He shared his rations. He spoke of Christ's grace not as abstract theology but as the very air he breathed behind bars.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians from a place of deep conviction: "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with His Son." Paul knew — as Bonhoeffer would discover centuries later — that the gifts of grace, the enrichment of community, and the confirming testimony of Christ do not depend on comfortable circumstances. They are not withdrawn when the cell door locks.

The God who called Bonhoeffer sustained Bonhoeffer. The same faithful God who began His work in you will carry it through to completion. That is not wishful thinking. That is the character of the Almighty.