Something beautiful has disappeared. I remember during my first years of immigration how I longed to receive letters. Eevery morning I would walk to the post office hoping there would be a letter from family or friends. I would read them again and again. Of course I wrote many letters as well, hoping for letters in response.
Today there are people who collect old letters. They will tell you, ' Don't throw away old letters '. Why not?
They say that a letter written expresses so much more than a quick e-mail... My wife, Winnie, shared a story of an old letter from her aunt in The Netherlands which she had written to her (Winnie's) dying mother, encouraging her to trust in Jesus and to read the Psalms. Winnie, years later, read the same letter to another elderly aunt comforting her with the same words.
I once took a course at Regent College in which the history of letter writing was discussed. Historians often use old letters to glean what they can about the past!
In the New Testament we read how God chose a man called Paul to preach the ' Good News ' of Jesus Christ and the resurrection. God chose letter writing as the way of communicating His message to the churches. Isn't it amazing that we still profit from these letters! Never old, always refreshing, rebuking, disciplining, encouraging etc. Will letter writing ever regain its importance ? Only God knows, but we must thank Him for the letters he has given us so we can proclaim the Good News to the ends of the world.
