The first letter I ever remember receiving was from an 8-year-old girl named Carolyn Summers. I was only 8 years old, too, and I had placed an ad in the Junior Horseman column of the Western Horseman magazine asking if someone would like to be my pen pal. A month later I received a real live letter sent all the way from California to our little farm in Maryland. I could hardly believe it – I saved the stamp and everything.
My pen pal and I corresponded for many years and ever since that time, I’ve had a love affair with letters. Letters are a gift, never an interruption. And in this day of electronic communication where everything pops up in your inbox on your computer, I tell you… a neatly folded letter on crisp paper with a real signature, well… it’s a treasured possession written and addressed and mailed to one, and only one person. Whenever you want to feel really close to someone, all you have to do is write a letter.
I remember when my mother was still alive; we corresponded cross country for over 20 years, until the time of her home going to heaven. Just recently I opened up the file folder of my mother’s old letters and I tell you, what a treasure trove that was! I am so glad I saved all her many letters. But I got a lump in my throat just looking at her handwriting. Oh my goodness, those letters are a wonderful document of so many chapters in my mom’s life and in mine – and as I slowly leafed through them, it was a heartwarming story of places and times and memories I would have forgotten about had they not been beautifully documented by my mother’s letters. And her letters that were really special were those ones which included a Scripture, or a line or two from one of her favorite hymns.
I know it’s something to this day I always do, whether I'm writing my husband a postcard while I'm on a trip or writing my sisters back east. To include a Scripture gives that letter of yours eternal significance, pointing the reader to the real Author of the chapters in their lives. Even the apostle Paul wrote letters and in Galatians 6:11, he tells his readers that he writes to them in his own hand.
Do the same today, friend – and I'll share this since National Letter Writing Week was earlier this month – today, if you know of a far away friend or a nearby neighbor who needs a little encouragement, if God has been placing someone on your heart lately, get out a pen and a nice piece of paper and give yourself to someone in a letter. Better yet, give them a heavenly perspective with a reminder from the Word of God – which, by the way, is the best file folder of a treasure trove of letters you’ll ever read. It’s a reminder from me, your pen pal today… it’s a reminder from our awesome God who wrote 66 books of letters just for you.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends