Those years I spent growing up and working in my father’s general store taught me so much about people, business and how to enjoy life! It was a true country general store with a US Post Office in the back. There were individual mailboxes on the front side of the Post Office where people in town would come in to get their mail (and meet other people!)
But once in a while I would see someone do something with their mail that I never understood…I would sometimes see a few people, take a letter that was addressed to them, but it had only a partial or no return address, and they would hold it up to the light trying to figure out who sent it!
I remember one afternoon a man came in as usual to get a snack and his mail. He was then leaning against the ice cream freezer looking over his mail, when I heard him say, “huh”. Followed by “huh”…I keep looking as he starts turning an envelope over and over, then end-over-end almost like it has no front or back! Then as he’s staring at the letter, I hear him say: “Buffalo”…”Buffalo“…”Buffalo”… and he starts holding the envelope up to the light. First the front side, then the back side, then over to the dairy cooler and he held it up tight to the brightly lit glass doors, turning it over and over and saying out loud again: “Buffalo!”. Then he looked over at me and asked…Do you know anyone in Buffalo? I just told him that I don’t think so. Then he wanted to know if I remembered anyone moving to Buffalo. But I couldn’t think of anyone who had.
About then, another man came in the store and the first man asked him: “Do you know anyone in Buffalo?” And he showed that man the letter. That man also held it up to the light and tried to guess some of the writing inside, but nothing for sure so he handed it back and moved on. The first man then came over and showed me the envelope…It was addressed to him, and his family and it had a return street address in Buffalo, NY, but there was no return name. I told him that maybe it’s a letter from someone he knows that just moved to Buffalo and this is the letter that will let you know about it. He said: “No, that can’t be it because they would have told me.” Then he headed for the door and said: I’m gonna have to show this to the wife and see if she can figure it out.” And he left without ever opening the envelope to see who it was from or what it was about! I still don’t understand the mystery or the intrigue of a letter with a missing or incomplete return address…
I was wondering if some of us today have unopened “letters” sitting around-letters that contain life changing truths? Because all of the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and much of the New Testament are Epistles or “letters” –written by man but inspired by God! And since it is the true Word of God, I have found that it ‘speaks’ to me differently and at just the right time in my life.
One thing I’m sure of is that all the ‘letters’ in God’s Word will forever be greater than ANY letter from Buffalo!
Till Next Time…..
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