Letter from Christ to me

You show that you are a letter from Christ … 2 Corinthians 3: 3a

I noticed on my desk top this morning a sermon, recorded on March 15, the 3rd Sunday in Lent. I was struck by the fact that, in the video, I looked and sounded fresh and the COVID-19 crisis was less than a month old. Since March 15, a staggering four months have passed! All of us are weary and tired of not only dealing with the effects (masks, social distance, etc.) of COVID on our communities, families, nation and world; we are sick of hearing about it, too. As cases rise in the south and southwest, and even places as close as Delaware, we are reminded that COVID is still very much here, at least for now. And I don’t know about you but I have sometimes become so very discouraged, so exhausted, and wondering what I had to offer this wonderful parish, as the disease marches happily along. I have seen, yet again, adding insult to injury, our country struggling to get in together, as COVID seemed to, inexplicably, divide us along partisan lines even further than before. We have not come together. We have dug into the old, tired, familiar camps that have made our outlooks, sometimes, feel so very bleak.

I received in the mail, just this past Monday, three drawings by three children (siblings) of our parish, all in the same envelope, no explanation, no note from mom and dad, just for me😊. And the three pictures were different versions of a sunny sky. And the eldest child sent me a little note on the back of her picture, in cursive, something you don’t see these days for anyone born in the last 20 or so years. And the pictures were brilliantly colored, with scribbles and flowers here and there, filled, I thought, with hope. I stuck them on my cork board behind my desk so that I can look at them. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:3, “You show that you are a letter from Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” Christ’s love poured out to me in the simple, yet profound works of art of children. I found my heart crack open a little, and the ever-present light of God in Christ poured in. The love of people in this parish often are God’s little love letters to me, least I forget how powerful, unifying, and blessed God’s love in my life, in all our lives can be. We do well do remember, especially in times of challenge, that God’s word in Jesus is forever al amp unto our feet and a light on our pathways in life (Psalm 119: 105). Our despair and challenges can be daunting but Christ’s love shines most brightly when we take a moment to reach out to someone and tell them – in whatever way we can – that Christ is near.