I remember my first love letter.  Every word from “Dear Joy” to “Love Always” took hold of my teenage heart. Years later, the writer told me his hands shook with each stroke of the pen.  He was traveling out of the country with his high school band. But he left his affection for me in print.

You see, the writer of my first love letter became my husband. But the God who is Love wrote His thoughts toward me eons ago.  I discovered His words as a college student involved with campus ministry. 

By then, Brady was on a different college campus in a different state. I told my Bible study leader that Brady and I had shoe boxes full of love letters from each other. And yet, my Bible study leader took the opportunity to help me see Love more clearly.

She told me whether we find love in all the right or wrong places, or we’ve never known love at all, God’s Word is His love letter to every heart.

Until then, the Bible felt like part-history book and part-impossible to-do list from the Creator to His flawed creation. But the more I read the pages and became aware of God’s promises, I knew His “love letter,” more than any other, was exactly what my soul needed.

No matter how fragile or fabulous our relationships with others have been, God’s love stands alone. His affection is perfect, forever, and free. But how can such fragile and sinful souls be ready to receive such love?

“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready” (Romans 5:6-7 MSG).

My weak and rebellious ways left me broken in ways no human heart could handle. By the time I married Brady, we exchanged written words over nine years since that first letter. Our hopes and dreams traveled through snail mail without us ever imagining the invention of the internet.

But God’s love traveled much further. His Word does something deeper.

Jesus came through forty-two generations to live a sinless life and die for our sins. (see Matthew 1:1-17 and 2 Corinthians 5:21) I don’t know if His hands shook. But I know His hands were “pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed”(Isaiah 53:5 ESV).

It’s been years since I’ve read my shoe boxes full of letters from Brady (and yes, that will change after today). But it’s hard to imagine if God’s love letter, His sixty-six books of the Bible, went unread by me. I’d remain broken and undone. As I read Scripture, life’s challenges and my longings meet His eternal truth. No shoebox can contain it, but every human heart can receive it. And there’s no telling what will happen when we let His love change our lives.

“Everything God does is right— the trademark on all his works is love.” -Psalm 145:17 MSG