“The steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.”
Psalm 103:17 ESV
Love letters come in all shapes and sizes, from very small to absolutely ginormous.
Some love letters will make you laugh. Others fan a flame in your heart that warms you from head to toe. Still, others will melt your heart and bring you to tears.
In days gone by, love letters were written by hand, delivered by courier, carried by steamers across oceans, or tightly composed to arrive by telegram.
Today, a love letter might arrive in a scented envelope or on military stationery. It could be a note written in a fancy Hallmark card or a 5-year-old’s crayon drawing with scrawled Xs and Os.
A love letter may be a brief note dropped in a lunch bag, an email, a text message, a Facebook post, an X Text, a post-it note left on the refrigerator, lipstick on the bathroom mirror, a singing elf straight from the North Pole, a highway billboard, or even written in the sky – the methods for conveying messages of love seem limitless.
Whatever form the message takes or however it may be delivered, it’s the identity of the sender that makes the message special to the recipient.
When God wanted His crowning achievement of creation—humankind—to know the height, width, depth, and magnitude of His love, He wrote the ultimate love letter. Sixty-six individual books, each revealing different aspects and eternal truths about God the Father’s great love. Sixty-six books that include a total of 1,189 chapters comprised of 31,102 verses, bundled together to form one cohesive, fully integrated letter of love from God Almighty, His Holy Word—the Bible.
The sixty-six books reveal God in His glory and majesty. In the Bible, we see His identity, His character, His plan for the people and planet He created, His redemptive design for fallen mankind, His unfailing love, and His great desire for eternal fellowship with those who follow Him in faith believing.
To punctuate His written Word, God sent His Word in the flesh—His Son, Jesus Christ. Fully God and fully man, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption and salvation for all who surrender in faith believing. Jesus is the Living Word – the Living Love Letter sent to all mankind. (1 John 1:1-4) The Word made flesh who was willing to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the people He created.
“1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14 ESV
How sad to find an unopened love letter—someone’s heart poured out in words, unopened, unread, unheard, and unanswered. Even sadder is to know that God’s written Love Letter often remains unopened, unread, unheard, and unanswered. His heart of love bleeds across every page, extending an invitation to “whosoever will.” (Revelation 22:17 KJV)
Most tragic is the fact that many are unwilling to accept God’s most precious Love Letter, the living, breathing Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV
God has sent you a Love Letter. Have you accepted the Word made flesh—Jesus Christ, God’s living, breathing Love Letter? If you have, are you poring over His written Love Letter to learn more and grow closer to the God who has loved you so completely?
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 ESV