Letters from God

Experience is a bitter teacher, because you are the guinea pig in the experiment. However, example is the best teacher, because you are the scientist to interpret the experiment and you make decisions from the findings. Experiences are part of the package of life and in one way or another our lives are shaped by our experiences.

When I was growing up my mother used to tell me that people are letters from God. This was her thinking. That we can learn a lot of stuff by just studying and observing other people’s lives. She would give me stories of different people. There was this man who used to catch moles for the farmers in our village, and she would say he was once a very rich man, and he misused his treasures, his wife committed suicide, his daughters ran away from home to get married as teens and now I could see the kind of life he lived. She would allow me to observe people in the village and all her stories had a moral.

I agree with her to a larger extent. We can learn a lot about life and God from people. When we consider the bible, most of the stories we read are about people who lived on earth just like us. When we read these stories, we are able to extract principles that guide us in our daily life, even though these people lived long ago. This shows the power of example.

It doesn’t matter whether an example is good or bad, we are still able to learn from them. This is the case in the bible. What the children of Israel went through was both to set an example as well as warn us of the consequences of disobedience. Look at David, he was able to give a testimony when he said “I was young and now am old and I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for food”. That statement shows that David would observe the righteous and learn the ways of God.

This means we are letters from God, that people will read and in turn they learn the ways of God. It would be so sad if, because of your casualness with God, or because of your low standard of living, people run away from God. Many people have lost faith in God because the people who are called by his name have become bad letters.

The other day I was thinking about what our children are learning in school, just to be untaught on their way home. In schools, they are being taught of how to obey rules and to be honest and to be kind and to be orderly. But as they step out of the class on their way home, what do you think they learn from the tout who doesn’t care? Or the driver who overlaps? Or the young man who pushes them as he tries to find their way in the bus? And what do you think they are learning from our politicians? and from the news every day?

Of all the people who need to know God are our children. How do you demonstrate God’s faithfulness through your life? Can those who watch your life testify of God’s goodness and might? Do your words match your lifestyle?

People are desperately looking for God, for hope and for truth. Can they find it from your life? What this world needs is letters from God. And you are such a letter. Let the word of God come alive in your life.