Love Letters
Are you working on Valentines at your house? Yesterday I went rummaging through end table drawers and my antique trunk, hunting for letters and scraps for a project. Given my affinity for the past, I shouldn’t have been so surprised by the number of dear, sweet letters I came across. Okay, I admit, I do not have a mile high stack of love letters, per se. Some are from my grandmother, a college roommate, my childhood pen-pal. I’ve always had a love for the correspondence, and these letters are a slice of my personal history, representing seasons of life and the people I love.
Reading through my little stash of stamped treasures brought me back to an age old truth that has encouraged me again and again as I spend my days pouring into the lives of my daughters and those around me. In Scripture, Paul writes to the church in Corinth to affirm his credentials for his work:
Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:1-3)
Did he rely on his achievements and success? His performance review report or his gleaming resume? No, Paul’s letters of recommendation were the lives of those he had impacted with the love of Christ. This week we’ll be pasting doilies on paper hearts and sprinkling glitter into pink envelopes, but my real love letters are those I write each day, not with my favorite Sharpie pen, but with love, written on the hearts of my children, my husband, the woman walking in the cold that I offer a ride to, or the friend who needs to vent. And my heart is overwhelmed with thanks for those who’ve “written not with ink” on my heart over the years – mothers, sisters, mentors and friends. (Hmm… maybe some letters of appreciation are in order!)
Happy letter writing, my friends, with ink & without!
