The letter was postmarked from Montgomery, Alabama. It was dated August 9, 1944. It was sent to a Miss R. T. Fletcher in California. The letter finally arrived the second week of March 2011.
We have developed the terms e-mail and snail mail. I believe 67 years even exceeds snail mail.
A military facility now used by the California National Guard received the letter from Montgomery. It was addressed to Miss Fletcher at the camp’s America Red Cross Hospital. The hospital was torn down decades ago.
Because of the uniqueness of this situation, the national news reported a brief story about the letter. Fletcher’s daughter heard about it and figured it might have been sent by her late uncle to her mother , who is 90-years-old and lives on the East Coast. To ensure that the letter was actually to her mother, she sent authorities a sample of her uncle’s handwriting, and officials sent her the unopened letter.
I would love to know what the letter said. I would also like to know where the letter had been for the past 67 years. Somebody messed up delivering that message.
The command to every Christian is to go and share the good news of the message. The good news of God’s redeeming grace gets held up a lot of times. There are people who are beyond the age of 67 who haven’t received the message yet. It is never too late.
In Matthew 28:19, when Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” I wonder what part of “go” don’t we understand. We have the message. It is to be delivered.
Jesus’ commission to us did not mean that we should do it if it was “easy to deliver the mail,” or if it was “convenient to deliver the mail.” He certainly didn’t put any qualifications as to whether or not the “postage on the message” would be sufficient. He just said “Go.”
The world is filled with Miss Fletchers, who are either waiting to get the mail or don’t even have any idea that the message has been sent. The opportunity for you and me is to “deliver the mail.”
I hope the news in the letter was good. The news of the message we have to deliver is the best news that people can ever hear. The church must get beyond the pony express and get the message delivered by personal sharing, social media, television, and any new delivery system Jesus teaches us!
Check your mail!
