I’m home this week from a trip with my sister to visit my folks and get some gears turning toward a move from their beloved Alaska home to somewhere a little nearer family.  Among the myriad of business items were some moments spent sifting through memorabilia…

One afternoon I dug in a musty box in the ramshackle red shed and unearthed a wee journal my dad had kept the year I was born. A little ‘red-faced gal’ was mentioned alongside Dad’s work of the day on ‘the Mack’.  As was the custom of the day, Dad had merely dropped Mom off at the hospital and come back to visit when all the business of childbirth was over and done.  I tucked the book in my suitcase for ‘keeps’.

Before tucking in for the night my sister and I opened an old dresser at the bedside and nosed about in the lives of our ancestors.  Here was the oldest find yet…a letter of my Grandma’s kin on the Jersey shore.  A slice of mystery from the past.  Who is this?

Why are one’s own history and relics from the past so intriguing?  What is it about the passage of time that enhances the value of a simple letter?  The morning after our rummagings in ancestry I opened my Bible to read these words:

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Talk about old letters!  Here’s one from someone who knew Jesus in person.  Incredible!  And my morning reading took on a new depth of meaning:

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners…God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and His Spirit has made you holy.  As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance–an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.  And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while…

I Peter 1:1-6NLT

And with these ancient words my perspective was heightened beyond the nitty gritty tough stuff of moldering earthly possessions and difficult changes of ‘home’…to see joy ahead and the sure hope held out by a brother in Jesus who wrote so many years ago and whose letter found its way to my Kindle this day.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

–LS