"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody."
2nd Corinthians 3:2
There are many kinds of letters: thank you notes, notes of encouragement, Dear John letters, sympathy cards, "get well soon" cards, letters of appreciation, Valentines notes, birthday cards.....the list goes on and on. In fact, Hallmark has made a very successful business out of the thousands of types of cards and letters that can be given.
Have you ever thought of yourself as a "letter from God"?
Me neither. Well, not until last week when this particular verse wedged its way into my heart.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that there is a lot more weight in this verse than we see at first. When we become followers of Christ, our lives, our behavior, our attitudes, our everything, are a letter from God to those around us. What does He want to say through us? I can guarantee that its not the vibe that I give off at times. You know that kind of day.....the "I'm running late from the moment I get up and have 4,000 extra interruptions to my already packed schedule and the computer gets a virus and crashes (or actually starts smoking in my case) and the kids climb up the cabinets and bomb the kitchen floor with cheerios and the dog has gastrointestinal issues from eating a sock out of the laundry" day.
What kind of "letter from God" am I then? To my family? To my friends? To the check-out clerk at Walmart?
My hope is that even after one of THOSE days, I would be a letter of kindness, of appreciation, of encouragement. A letter of godliness in the face of a dark world. Will I always meet that goal? No way. But at least now I know what the goal should be.
