The Letter Says It All

My mom had barely entered her teenage years when my dad—seventeen at the time—saw her over the hood of the bus he drove and said, “Someday, I’m gonna marry that girl.” He did marry her, and this year they celebrated sixty-four years of marriage. He has cherished her since the first time he laid eyes on her. I know because I’ve read his love notes.

My daddy was a carpenter by trade. As an early riser, he made it to the job site before daylight. Each morning, after he packed his peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich and filled his thermos with coffee, he wrote the same words on a torn piece of scrap paper: “I love you today.” When my mother made her way to the kitchen to pour her coffee, she’d read his simple love letter. As one year faded into the next, their love remained strong, and my daddy continued to write my momma love notes.

Several years ago, my daddy’s once-steady hands began to fail him. His doctor diagnosed him with familial tremors, a condition where shaking and small, rapid movements affect the arms, head, eyelids, and other muscles. People with this disorder have trouble holding and using small objects … and writing love notes.

My daddy had always been active. Even though he had slowed down some in his eighties, he still kept busy. Sadly, though, this disorder disrupted his life tremendously. As the condition worsened, he asked his doctor for some medicine, but not for reasons you would think. He wasn’t concerned about his golf swing or holding a hammer. Instead, as he explained to his physician, “You see, I write her love notes each day, and now I can’t.”

My parents came to dinner at my house shortly after my dad started on the right medicine for his tremors. As I greeted my daddy at the door with a hug, he reached into his pocket and handed me a small torn piece of scrap paper. Written were the words “I love you, Wendy Pope.” His entire faced beamed. “See, I can write love notes again.”

That note, a couple of years old now, hangs on the mirror in my bathroom. Every day as I apply my makeup and fix my hair, I read the love note from my father. I never have to wonder if he loves me, because his words say it all.

I don’t know what your relationship with your earthly father is like, but I know a Father who loves you very much. He sent His Son to die a sacrificial death so that you could spend eternity with Him. He tells you how much He loves you in the letter He wrote… the Bible… all you have to do is open it and read. He gives solutions to problems, answers to questions, wise guidance for your plans, freedom from your past mistakes, and hope for your future… all we have to do is open and read it.

Since it’s just us girls sitting around the table, may I share something personal with you? I haven’t always loved to read God’s love letter. I’ve loved the Bible because God wrote it, but the thought of reading and learning the ancient words intimated me. Reading has never been one of my strengths, so I was scared to attempt to read the Bible for fear of not understanding what I was reading. Maybe you can relate. You want to read the Bible but the thought of doing so is daunting. So how do we go from intimated to being inspired by the Word?

• Find a translation that is easy for you to read. I might have, on an occasion or two turned to my son’s children’s Bible to help me understand a passage. For my daily reading I use the New Living Bible which is written on a sixth-grade level. There’s no shame in reading a children’s Bible as adult; there is however, great regret for not reading the Bible at all.
• Accept that you will NOT understand everything you read. Yes, I said NOT. The Bible was written so that we might have an intimate relationship with God. He wants us to savor His Word as He feeds us one nugget of truth at a time. The more we understand the more we want to understand. The more we return to the Word the better we know God.
• Trust God with what you don’t know and obey what He asks you to do. Our enemy, the devil wants to keep us ignorant of the Word because he knows that the life we want to live is found tucked in the truths of God’s love letter to us. Life with the God of immeasurably more is found at the intersection of His Word and our obedience to it. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within us as a teacher, guide, comforter, and helper. The Spirit will give us peace concerning what we don’t understand, and the power to obey what we do.

The Letter says it all. Friend to friend, I’m begging you make a commitment to spend time reading His Word every day. You will know a love that you’ve never known before, experience adventure and joy that only the deepest part of your heart has dared to dream, and welcome a freedom to live radically for Him that you never thought possible. He’s obsessed with you; be obsessed with Him.

Wendy Pope is the wife of Scott, mother of Blaire and Griffin, author, speaker, and Bible study teacher. She loves lazy Sundays watching golf with her husband, thrift-store shopping with her daughter, and watching building shows with her son. She leads women all over the world to life change through her in-depth online Bible studies at WendyPope.org. Down-to-earth and transparent, Wendy teaches in a way that women feel she is speaking directly to their hearts. She has led thousands of women through her Read Thru the Word (RTW) study of the One Year Chronological Bible. Her messages are filled with biblical insights but sprinkled with just the right amount of humor to help her audiences see she is a real, everyday woman.

Photograph © Rachel Lynette French, used with permission