History

Letter to the Beloved

by Terry Barlow
11/16/18
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The story is told of a young British soldier dying on a WW II battlefield as he was surrounded by fellow soldiers.  He was bleeding profusely from a deep wound in his midsection and clutching a crumpled, blood soaked letter in his trembling hand, a letter to his sweetheart back home.  His life was quickly ebbing away with the inevitable loss of blood and he was pleading to be put out of his misery.  The one who related the story is the one who finally ended his comrade’s life and who inherited the bloodstained letter, but later hadn’t the heart to deliver it to the sweetheart.  He knew he would be asked to share the grisly details of the intense suffering of his mate’s final moments,  and he couldn’t bear the thought of having to do that. He especially couldn’t bear to have to say that it was his own bullet that ended his friend’s life.  Though he could never bring himself to deliver the letter, neither could he dispose of it.  It was too precious in its own peculiar way.

So we as believers are a peculiar people in possession of a treasured and  bloodstained love letter,  the message of which we are asked,  by the One who died writing it,  to deliver to the beloved. The fact that each of us had a hand in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ also corresponds to the soldier’s story. It was Martin Luther who said that we have all in our own pockets the nails that crucified Christ. The “red letter” edition of the Bible takes on new meaning too when we consider that Christ’s own words were written in the red of his own blood shed for us.  We know that He died fighting for our freedom from sin and death.  But our story doesn’t end with the grisly and painful details of a slow death.  The slain author of our letter rose from the dead!  He will see and embrace his beloved at the appointed time.  Hallelujah!!  In the meantime the contents of that letter are nourishing the soul and spirit of the beloved, as we pore over them again and again and savor every word!