Undelivered Letters

This was penned sometime between 1963-1968.

How many of you like to receive and write letters? Everyone of us anxiously awaits the letter from that special someone. There is just something about getting a letter from someone you haven't seen in a long time that just lifts you up and fills a little of the vacancy that they leave.

When you write a letter you put a little of yourself into the letter, don't you? Sometimes you can put something in a letter that you couldn't say to the person to his or her face at all. When you write that letter..(Sometimes it's quite a chore to just write a little 'ole bitty letter!) ... but after you've gone to the trouble and lick the envelope and stamp (just think... $.05 for a stamp now!!) ... you certainly want to be sure it reaches the person that it was intended, don't you?

I heard about this postman in California who was arrested and they found 5,000 unopened letters in his house. When they questioned him, this is what he said, "My feet hurt. I would get so far on my route and my feet would get to hurting so bad that I'd just go home. I intended to deliver them the next day, but the next day my feet got to bothering me again and I just kept putting off part of my route. I didn't intend to keep the letters. I sincerely intended to deliver them but they just kept piling up and I got further behind."

The postman was tried and given a prison sentence. We would say he rightly deserved it, wouldn't we? We would have hated to be some of the people who failed to get their mail. Maybe some of the letters contained money that would have solved problems... or messages that no one else could bring.

You know, you and I have been entrusted with some letters and messages just as important to people. We have the message of salvation and the Bible with all kinds of messages of promise -

     "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

     "In My Father's house are many mansions.."

     "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What message could be more important than holding back a message from God that He had entrusted us to take?

Will our excuse when we stand before the Great Judge be the same as the postman's? "My feet hurt...I was too busy ... I intended to take the message but I got so far behind .... There were so many I didn't see how I could get around to them all..."

Then the Great Judge will surely take those works of ours and burn them in the fire, and only those letters that were delivered will be saved and the others burnt, and we ourselves will be saved "so as by fire" -- no reward, not as many joys as we might have had if we had but delivered His message.

Next entry: "My Valentine"
Read about "The Word of God in My Life"
Read the first entry of my prayer life - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"