Treasuring the Past on Paper

Our internet age is amazing in so many ways. We have the answer to so many questions we have right at our fingertips. We can greet friends and strangers who live many miles away and dialogue with them about many topics. As exciting as these things may be we have lost what is at least as great a value. We used to send more cards and notes through the mail wishing friends a happy birthday or updating them on what is happening in our lives.Often such communication would be tucked away to be remembered another day. Today with our up to date technology such notes are gone in an instant. I have been blessed by living in both the age of notepaper as well as the age of quick notes that last a moment.

Periodically I browse through old cards and notes from friends and relatives. I am often reminded of what is really important. Sometimes I find cards with an unexpected expression of affection. I rarely get to read what i might have written to these people. This note was an exception. I had been married less than 2 years and this letter was for my grandmother on her 93rd birthday. I found this letter in her Bible after her death.


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Dear Grandmom,                                                                                                      

When I thought about finding a birthday card for you, I didn't think any of them would say what I wanted it to say.

Recently I saw a movie in which a man told a woman that she wasn't just 40 years old but also 40 carats. By this he meant that just as a diamond increases in value with each carat so does a person increase in value with each passing year. Grandmom each year you become more precious to me. Since you are a Christian each year God takes the joy and sorrow of  your life and uses them all to make you more and more like Jesus. Even when you are not aware of it, He is working to make you a more obedient child of His, Just as we can't deserve to be saved by Jesus from our sins neither can we merit any of the wonderful things He does for us or ways He changes us afterwards, We can only thank God for His work and pray that we will be able to to love and serve Him better.

Love,
Joan


Knowing how much I treasure this and other notes from the past perhaps I will think more carefully before I decide to take the easy tech way or find my notepaper and perhaps create a lasting memory.

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