Love Letters

When the topic of love letters is brought up among women there is always a mixed reaction.  For some lucky women they can remember back to a time when an enthralled lover took the time to meticulously compose his admirations for them and send it off.

However for others, you can see the “but I’ve never received one” look of disappointment in their eyes. In this day and age that is so far from the romantic times of days gone by–many women have missed the chance to receive a real love letter.  They have failed to experience the exhilaration of reading a letter painstakingly written and sent to them by the one who loves them.  In a time when each young man has at his disposal a cell phone from which to verbalize his affections or quickly text his feelings–alas, love letters it seems have gone out of style.

The good news is, that all women have received at least one glorious love letter they can boast about.  God has sent each of us a very elaborate love letter that virtually drips with His care. The Bible is a love letter sent straight from the heart of God to each person and it magnificently explains the parameters of His divine affection.

It is rarely enough for any truly creative and inspired author to merely write “I love you” and the Creator of the Universe is no exception.  God has placed in our hands a collection of writings supernaturally infused and filled with the perfect embellishments to melt our hearts.

Now to be sure, some parts of the Holy Writ warm the heart more than others, but there are within the Book certain passages that literally cry out to be read over and over.  By definition love letters are filled with passion, and of all literature, love letters are the words most often kept, treasured and memorized.  Similarly, God’s love letters are also passion filled and memorable. Indeed, within God’s wonderful love anthology there are some verses that veritably deserve to be inscribed on the recipient’s heart.

One of the wonderful things about God’s love letters to us are the things that they reveal about Him. If we were given the life-time correspondences of any person, we would probably move first to the love letters, knowing that incased in these we would find the most intimate and candid portrait of the correspondent. And likewise, as we consider the Word of God, it is especially within certain “love passages” that we receive a special illumination of the Lover of our Soul.  A collection of love letters written over time is always especially revealing, each letter exposing a different aspect of a multi-faceted affection. And God’s love correspondences with us are like that; one a letter of declaration, the next of affirmation, another speaking of His needs and supplications and best of all those that envelop revelation—and the Lover’s plan and dream for our future.

So why exactly does anyone take the time to write a love letter when they could just as easily speak their love? And why would God in Heaven see fit to leave us with such a catalog of written expressions of His love? One expert on the subject has delineated some reasons I believe provide some interesting insights into the topic.

“We write letters because we want to be close to someone who is physically absent.”

“We write letters to allow for graceful expressions that might be hard to deliver in person.”

“We write letters because they are more potent than verbal declarations and because it is a considered thing that time spent on a love letter allows for refinement towards perfection.”

“We write letters because they last, to be read again and again.”

And finally, “we write letters because we know someone wants them.” (quoted from Love Letters by Michelle Lovric).

In closing, no one can hear often enough that they are loved, or be reminded frequently enough about the delight that the one who loves them finds in them.  We are all made for relationship and the Bible teaches that loving expressions and affirmations provide for a healthy psyche.  They are literally like enriching food or healing balm for the soul (Prov 16:24).

Humans thrive on loving messages and there is no one among us who should deprive themselves of the sustenance that expressed love supplies.  And the fortunate truth is there is no need that anyone should go without.  The “love letters of God” are there waiting for anyone who will pick them up and read them and His loving messages provide the finest feast of all.