All of the Many…
The Musings of Carolyn Wesner
- Soup Lunch (Jan – March)
Letters
By Carolyn Wesner
In the days before emails, text messages, telephones, and passenger pigeons, writing letters was the long-distance way to communicate. Letters were written on anything: skin, bark, leaves – you get the picture. In more sophisticated societies, letters were sealed with wax to prevent the letter carrier from peeking. Letters were carried on ships, on horseback, by camels, and by fast runners. Of course, it took a while to get a reply… no matter, they did the best they could.
Almost all the letters in the Bible were written by kings or prophets: big important people with big important things (or sneaky things) to tell. A very early Biblical letter was written by King David to his general on the front battle lines, telling him to arrange a fight intentionally so the soldier Uriah would be killed (David was stealing his wife). Sadly, the messenger who carried this note was Uriah himself! To keep things real, the scriptures tell the bad and good, maybe cautionary tales for us.
In the New Testament, Paul was the most prolific early Christian letter writer whose writings have been handed down to us. In fact, many letters were written by others about him too – he was quite the influencer in his day. He wrote letters to new believers, to young missionaries, to house churches; and he wrote letters constantly while traveling and even while in prison (think “postcard from Rome”). What Paul knew was this: life is short. Communicating one’s deepest and most heartfelt ideas, feelings, and instructions had to be done NOW.
Are there things which you’ve been keeping in your heart which someone could benefit from? Write an actual letter or make a phone call (no voicemail messages! No tiny texts!), or travel to talk face-to-face if that’s possible. It’s okay if the wording isn’t perfect, the punctuation is lousy, or the grammar is flawed. Just tell what’s in your heart, like Paul.