Love Letter

Love letters.  In this day and age, perhaps a thing of the past.  Back in the day, love letters were a real art form.  They were mostly handwritten, in a cursive that nowhere near resembled the chicken scratching that passes for handwriting today.  Later on, but before all this new electronic technology, some may have, I suppose, been typewritten.  Nowadays, every once in a while, we read or hear of a "find"...a treasure trove of love letters written over a period of years, that someone kept...and now they provide not only information, but a real peek into the very souls of the authors and those to whom they were writing.  It's a lost art form for sure.....gone dead to technology.

Now there is texting, messaging, tweets, e-mails.....who has time, or even if they did would take it, to write love letters?  And who is going to save a text, message, tweet, or an e-mail for posterity sake in an old shoe box?  Not going to happen.  And a lot of grand kids and great grand kids aren't going to be able to share in a great "find"...some of gamma's and grandpas love letters, or perhaps even mom and pops.

Going back to the days when love letters were so much more than a texted "hi, babycakes, I love you",,,what made them really special and unique (besides being handwritten)?

• they would share what was going on in the life of the author
• they would talk about things that made them happy
• they perhaps shared dialogue about things they had seen and done
• they would talk about love and hope for the future of the receiver
• they might even talk about cautionary measures in the absence of the sender
• they would talk about their future together, after they were not separated anymore
• and throughout each letter would be one constant theme...the love of the sender to the receiver

Actually, we are all privy to a love letter every single day of our lives.  In fact it is the longest love letter ever written.  Is it a radical thought to think of the Bible as God's love letter to us? 

• Is it not full of life lessons directed to us?
• Is not God's unfailing love for each of us evident throughout?
• Is not God's concern for our wellbeing expressed from front to back?
• Are not God's promises to us expressed clearly all the way through?

Perhaps we need to think of the Bible as a love letter instead of a book of rules, conditions. and history.  When we call it God's Word it sounds so much more like a love letter anyway....perhaps we all need to change our thinking a bit and embrace it as a true love letter.