My boss recently gave me a copy of a sort of abbreviation dictionary so I could decipher what I was getting in my emails from time to time.
However, of all the letters I have ever received, it is the love letters that have meant the most to me and the ones that I have saved over the years. Letters from a dear friend during a long-time relationship, letters from my mom and dad during times of joy and sadness. But love letters nonetheless – filled with expressions of such deep caring that reading them again after many years still brings both smiles and tears.
God’s love letter to us, His Holy Word, elicits the same response. When we read His love letter to us we are reminded that “we love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). Not that everything that comes into our lives is always joyous – we all know that isn’t the case. But we know that because of His great love for us, everything that comes into our lives will be for our ultimate good and that is what allows us to smile and have great joy even in the midst of tears. And, unlike the writers of the love letters in my own life who are now gone, God never departs, never goes away without any way for me to “get in touch” with Him. He is always as close as picking up my Bible and reading how great is His love for me.
This is the month that we celebrate human love during Valentine’s Day and the days surrounding it. But as you wait for that card or letter or gift to come in the mail (or be sent to you via Facebook) remember that God’s love letter to you is as close as opening His Word and being reminded that His great gift – Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross – is the greatest expression of love that the world will ever know.
