There are few things in life that are more meaningful than a heartfelt love letter written from an abundance of emotions. 

They come in many styles and flavors-they can make you laugh or cry-they can move you or stop you dead in your tracks. One thing is for sure-regardless of the content, they can’t be ignored or easily forgotten.

There is nothing more amusing or pitiful than a man whose gift is not the English language as he desperately tries to capture his woman’s heart by writing down on paper the description of his feelings that he can’t quite define himself. And still he does what is unnatural to him-compose a sappy love letter that his lady will treasure as if it were written by Henry David Thoreau. Whether love letters are written worthy of literary prizes or smell of oil from a mechanic’s garage, they have power.

I love to write poetry, especially for my wife and have had several of them published. But nothing I’ve ever written compares to a simple note she wrote to me many years ago.  Just last week we returned from our annual trip to California.  We have a favorite spot where we can just sit on the beach and catch our breath. Along with our normal luggage we each take a toiletry bag. Mine is your everyday men’s valet bag while hers has a shoulder strap and 4 wheels, but that is another blog. At the bottom of my bag in a sealed plastic bag for protection is a letter she wrote to me upon my first trip away from her over eighteen years ago. It has since traveled with me whenever I leave town for any reason. I have no desire to divulge the entire contents of the letter, but it was simply stated that she would miss me and think of me the entire time I’d be gone and would be counting down the days until we could be together again. She had secretly slipped it in my bag and I found it the first night and read it every night I was away. Eighteen years later I still pull it out when we travel and am reminded how lucky I am to be with such a beautiful lady.

As precious as these are there are love letters that have been passed down to us for over two thousand years by someone who created, perfected and displayed His love for us in ways that our minds can’t comprehend or our best words describe. Look at just a few of these letters left for us;

Romans 8:35

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eph. 3:17

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge

Lamentations 3:22

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The Bible is full of God’s love being shown and declared to us even when we are at our worst and least deserving. In fact it can be read as one very long love letter, and it doesn’t need to be protected in a plastic bag at the bottom of a luggage case. Through the centuries it hasn’t faded or decayed, it hasn’t been lost in the hustle and bustle of life and it still has an amazing power to overcome the worst hurts imaginable when applied.

I still write my wife love letters-she continues to inspire the prose in me. That love will continue to flow from the author of all love and the most awesome composer of love letters of all time!