One simple letter

Have you ever received a letter from a friend or family member? I'm assuming that you have received one sometime during the course of your life. :)

So, how do you read it? Do you jump down to the bottom to see who it's from? Do you longingly pour over the words, digesting every scratch and tittle on the page? Do you start from the beginning and work your way all the way through to the end, going back to read and re-read a number of times, grinning a small smile goofily to yourself? Especially if the letter is from a loved one, do you thirstily suck all the moisture out of the words?

Or, do you read it one line at a time? Maybe just reading the first paragraph, waiting until the next day or the next to read the next paragraph. Maybe finishing the letter in a week or so. Do you read it like that? Probably not, I'm assuming.

I got a note from my boyfriend yesterday, and I read it in the way I first described (there you go, Julz). And I realized last night, in a sort of epiphany, that the letters in the Bible are to be read in the same way. I read Philippians out loud and began to realize that this letter, written by the forefather Paul, could have been written by any of my friends to me, or by any modern-day missionary to my church. It is that personal. His words are not the direct Words of Christ, they are the words of a fellow laborer in the faith who, like us, is led by the Words of Christ, encouraging and admonishing his friends. Wow. Paul was directed by the Holy Spirit and inspired. But he was also just like us, a human saved by grace, writing to his friends--needing their support and longing to support them.

I feel a bit more humbled right now, a bit more aware of the fact that Christianity is real and has been real since its earliest beginning. It makes me want to write a few letters, and re-read some of those that I have received.