That was a song we used to sing when I was a Brownie:
Make new friends and keep the old,
Some are silver and the others gold.
I opened a surprise letter from some golden friends today.
Robert and I have lived in 5 states during our 21+ years of marriage. We started out in Mobile, AL for my grad school, moved to Texas for seminary, then onto Missouri for Robert’s first ministry job, down to Louisiana, and now in Wisconsin. This golden friend from long ago has also moved many times with his family.
We met Max and Sandra when we lived in Carthage, MO. They moved to town after we had been in Missouri a couple of years. Sandra and I were in women’s Bible study together and we did things occasionally as families since their son was just a year older than Adam. They had a daughter that was in the youth group for a bit before we left to move to Louisiana. We haven’t seen them in over 10 or 11 years. However, we have done the annual Christmas card thing almost every year. They have changed our address from Louisiana to Wisconsin in their address book and we have done the same for them as they have moved twice in Oklahoma. So today I am rifling through the mail—bills, junk, and the like when I notice a large 5×7 envelope with their city in Oklahoma in the return address. Since they are the only people we know of in that city and we had already done Christmas cards, I was curious as to what it could be. Here’s what I found inside…
Max had handwritten a 2-1/4 page letter to me. It isn’t often that I get a handwritten letter in the mail anymore and especially not one so lengthy from someone I haven’t seen or talked to in over a decade. In the letter, Max referenced the Christmas newsletter we sent out this year (we always do a funny family photo and a letter). In the second paragraph I wrote:
We were thinking that with the rapid and constant social connections via email, Twitter, texting, and Facebook that Christmas cards seem a bit redundant. Most of you know what our kids look like and what we’ve been up to this past year. However, in these days of instant and depersonalized everything, a real Christmas card that you can hold in your hands means something. It means we like you and care enough about you to write, print, fold, stuff and stamp an envelope, and handwrite an address. It means you are worth (way more) than $0.44 to mail the card. While it would be easy and free to click send on a mass, multi-media email, there would have been no time and little thought invested. We hold this letter in our hands, knowing that you will hold it in yours. And hopefully, it will bring a little joy to find an envelope that is not a bill or advertisement in the mailbox. So, even though you are getting this card late, you are still getting it because you matter to us.
I won’t recap all of Max’s letter, but he said as he was dealing with a recent family death he was trying to figure out why some things, like a rolling pin of his grandmother’s and a leather bookmark of his grandfather’s meant so much. He said that it was a realization that they had held it in their hands and now he could hold it in his and that my silly little newsletter had made him connect with that. What’s cool about that is that in response, Max took the time to handwrite me a long letter. He has my email address and could have just pressed SEND. He could have even typed it. However, the simple act of him pulling out some notebook paper and writing each word is so much more time consuming, personal, and thoughtful. He enclosed two pocket crosses that he made inside—one for me and one for Robert. Again, the handmade aspect. What a wonderful simple joy to find in the mail today.
People are wonderful!
And life is beautiful.
