When working with wood in my garage, I often see the post person arriving with the mail. Naturally, we greet each other and I ask: “Anything special today or just ‘junk mail’.” They usually respond with a negative or positive expression. We may or may not comment on the weather, but I realize their schedule is a tight one, and so a wish for a good day or a good weekend sends them on their way.
Everyone looks for a fulfillment of Proverbs 25:25, “Like cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a distant land.” Admittedly, I have already checked my e-mail earlier in the day, so most of the news has arrived via the computer. I have a friend who does not enjoy computers any more than I, and if he wants to chat, it is on the telephone. My home church in Bermuda keeps me abreast of happenings weekly, and thus we see our fulfillment of “good news from a distant land”.
On occasion someone will get to thinking about our times together, and though it may be a long way back, they will drop a note. I look forward to such notes, and try to respond with a brief note ASAP. Sometimes those notes are family updates. At other times it might be a request for prayer. (Those I take to the Lord immediately, lest they get buried in forgetfulness.) In these tumultuous times it might be requests for opinion of Doctrine. The list is without end!
The fact that someone took the time to remind me that they had not forgotten this “old boy” is very meaningful, and as the saying goes: “It is like a shot in the arm.” It becomes even more exciting when they bring the tidings of “good news”; that is not too plentiful these days.
I have shared with you what it means to me to get “good news from a far country”. What I hope you will do is to fulfill that to someone else. Let them know that they have not been forgotten and that they remain lodged in your brain. Modern communication makes it reasonable and exciting for you and for them. (ASAP)
ETCetera 