Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Jesus' Sense of Humor: Letters Home

Isn't it ironic some times how the Lord works? This morning I wrote a blog on the letters of Paul. How I felt like I understood him just a bit better. How he wrote letter of encouragement and admonishment and joy-filled hope for his new friends all around the ancient world. Letters were THE means of communication at a distance. I can only imagine what ancient Timothy would have put on his facebook wall when he received Paul's fatherly e-mail. Or what Paul would have sent if he had to condense the letter to the Thessalonians to a 140-character tweet. There is still something to be said for a hand-written letter. The way it feels in your hands. The time it took to carefully chose your words, knowing that unless you write in pencil, you cannot delete your words or rearrange whole sentences at whim.

All of that said, I received the most wonderful surprise this morning. A team from my church just got back from Costa Rica. Not only did they bring me a bottle of the priceless Lizano Salsa for making my beans and rice, they brought a sweet little bundle of scrawled epistles from some of the kids and fat envelopes stuffed with letters from my chicken group (the women of the group that met once a week in The Rica). How precious are the words of friends!!! What is even deeper in meaning for me is the fact that most of these women never finished high school and one is actually illiterate (the hand writing suspiciously looking like her loving sister-in-law's). Those letters mean more than a thousand e-mails or facebook posts.

So here's my challenge for you today. Write a letter. Hand write it. To your mom, your best friend, you son or daughter. Maybe to a missionary over seas. Or to an old neighbor. Write some one to share your hope. Your joy. Tell some one that you appreciate them. That they are special. That God loves them. It will definitely make their day!!

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