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Listen while you read: "Simply Trusting"1
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In the 1970s, my husband Lynn and I lived as far away from our hometown of Portland, Oregon, USA, as is possible. Portland's antipode (on the opposite side of the globe) is somewhere in the Indian Ocean, and the large island of Madagascar, where we were serving as missionaries, is the closest land mass. This remote location meant that travel and communication were both extremely challenging. Communicating with friends and family in the USA from that great distance wasn't easy. How easy communication is today with the growth of the Internet and social media! Email, texting, FaceTime, and Zoom make even face-to-face conversations from afar fast and easy today. During the 1970s, however, airmail letters were our primary means of communication.
My letter writing to our friends and families fell into a regular pattern. Every Sunday afternoon, I would sit down at my typewriter (for there were no personal computers yet either, remember?) to type out my two-page, single-spaced letters on thin, airmail-weight stationery.
Writing and mailing a letter was only the first step in the chain of communication. It took an average of three weeks or more to send a letter home and receive a reply. Try to imagine this slow-motion, stuck-in-molasses style of conversation. By the time we got an answer to a particular question, we had often forgotten what we'd asked in the first place! More confounding yet was the confusion caused by the letters crossing in transit. Everything was always out of sync by half a step. Had we had a computer, I could have created a spreadsheet with letter dates, and questions asked and answered! Oh, so much confusion!
Despite the frustrations of this long-distance, slow-motion communication, we eagerly looked forward to getting letters from home. One Bible verse expresses what those letters from home meant to us:
Proverbs 25:25 – Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. (NIV)
Even better than those letters from home is God's Holy Word, the Bible. It is His "letter from home" to all of us, for we who know Jesus as Saviour also know that our real home is in heaven, even while we are still on earth.
Philippians 3:20 – But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. (NLT)
God's words as written down by the inspired writers of Scripture are all about Jesus, Whom God wants to reproduce in the lives of His people. Through Scripture, we are invited to place our faith in Jesus' redemptive work and God's promise of eternal life. Through Scripture, we are also given all the instruction that we need for living a God-pleasing life.
Will you read God's Word as His personal "letter from home" to you? Our loving response to His Word is obedience:
Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (NIV)
Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, You have given us all that we need to know about You and our world through Your love letter to us — the Bible. May we read and receive it as Your personal message to each of us. Amen.
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About the author:
Gail Lundquist <gail10833@gmail.com>
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
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Thank you.
Amen Gail!
Wonderful, Gail! Love the details and the memories. Thank you.
Thank you, Gail!!! Well said!
(NS Canada)
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us. Amen, my writing friend! Blessings.
Thank you, Gail. One of the blessings of these devotionals is learning all the interesting experiences of the writers. They lead to many lovely applications to our own lives.
Thanks, Gail, for another very special devotional. I loved the words in your closing prayer. The Bible is truly the “Lord’s love letter” to us and so very available for us to read at any time. Blessings for writing.
Dear Gail,
Thank you very much for today’s devotional. Both my husband and I so enjoy all of your contributions. We will, as always, look forward to reading your future devotionals.
(BC)
Hi Gail,
Another well-written devotional with such a clear message about the ultimate love letters. I recall those days of being on the receiving end of letters, and the awareness of great distance and time gaps. God’s word is not limited to these things. Amazing!
Thank you for your devotional and encouragement to keep on reading the Bible. Several years ago I committed to reading through the Bible each year and also reading 5 Psalms and 1 Proverb every day. I love it every day and now I enjoy those special verses every day.
Keep on writing and tell us your stories. That is amazing how you lived so far from family and kept in touch. Blessings.
Dear Gail,
Thanks for your good devotional this morning. Isn’t it great to know that we have instant communication with our Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and … the distance just isn’t there. Even with all of our modern technology, sometimes… well, it just lets us down. But God is always available, and in our country, we still have, and can read His wonderful promises to us!
God bless you and keep writing.
Hi Gail,
Of course, I well remember sending those letters on very thin paper to uncles in the armed services. The one thing that I miss about those letters has been revealed lately as I have been going through all sorts of “stuff.” Letters written by my Dad to me when I was in college, even letters he wrote home when he was in college. I have disbursed a lot of these to various family members. Of course, as you have said, the Bible is the most important letter of all.
Thanks for writing.
Hi Gail,
A different way of looking at the Bible as “His letter from home” – great way of reminding us of how important it is in our lives.
I have been using your suggestion of reading the Bible over two years and so far, I am successful. I am grateful for the idea because I am not giving up. I find some of the Old Testament more of a challenge to stay focused.
A prayer to help me remember the importance of reading God’s Word. Thank you for sharing part of your journey as a missionary so far from your family and friends. May you have a blessed day.
A beautiful Wednesday morning to you, Gail.
I sure relate to your message today. My parents were missionaries in Japan and returned to the USA before I was born and listened to many of their stories over the years. Then my turn came when my precious Pastor husband joined the Navy Chaplain, much to my JOY and pride. We had very young children, and I knew we would have many separations, but I knew it was a very special calling. He wrote to me every day and sometimes they came in packs. I have shoe boxes of letters that I love to read. What greater changes there will there be in communication 10 years from now? But nothing can change the Word of God, our very special social media!!!
God bless you greatly!!!
As a missionary wife in Brazil during the 1960’s to 1980’s I can identify with geographical isolation. In the mid to late 1960’s no phone calls – no phone and lost letters from family.