Deliberate Communication--December 13, 2021

Deliberate Communication--December 13, 2021

There are a million ways in this techno-savvy age of ours to send a message in an instant.  Text messages, email, instant messenger apps, social media comments, and more are all readily at our fingertips and take virtually no time at all to send.  But the trouble with all of those electronic formats is that it is terribly easy to send a message without actually putting thought into what we are saying.  Through technology, we have made it so easy to send a message that half the time our own devices are suggesting words to complete our thoughts for us (with features like "predictive text" or "autocorrect") or taking our words and reducing them into cartoon faces.  

It takes longer to plan out what you are going to say in a hand-written note.  Not only because our hands our slower to write out words in longhand, but because we actually have to think and communicate in complete sentences.  Without a "delete" button or an "undo" feature, you have to think out an entire idea or phrase before you put it down on paper.  That has a way of forcing us to slow down, to plan what we want to say, and to choose our words deliberately.  It has a way of conveying something of our actual selves to another person, rather than letting an algorithm guess what you were going to say, minus any of your own actual personality.

The beauty of a handwritten note is exactly in its costliness--not just the price of postage, but the gift of time that goes into writing it, the effort that goes into composing it, and the precious glimpse of the sender's own soul that's communicated.  When you get a note in the mail from someone, you are receiving something they themselves have touched, seeing marks their own hands have created, and ideas that came out of their own mind.  There is something beautiful about that, and the patience required of the whole process, from writing and sending to receiving and reading, is part of that beauty, too.  It's rather like the difference between ordering an assembly-line hamburger from the drive-thru and wolfing it down with one hand as you drive with the other and eating a meal that's been cooking for hours in the kitchen and prepared by someone who knew what they were doing, and who knows how much paprika you like in the sauce.

As people of faith, too, there is something really powerful about the act of taking the time to think about what you want to say, committing it to paper, and then sending those words off to someone important enough to you that you have gone to all that trouble.  It is a way of stepping into the perspective of God in a sense, if you think about it.  The coming of Christ at Christmas is all about God communicating to us--first, in the visions of prophets and words of poets inspired to announce the Messiah, and then ultimately in God's self-expression in the baby in the manger.  And that says something about God's willingness to be deliberate... methodical... patient... in the sending of the message.  The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is "the exact imprint of God's very being" (Heb. 1:3), which is to say that Jesus is what it looks like when God communicates the fullness of God's own identity.  Jesus is God's love letter to us. And the way God took the time in our human history to prepare the way, to nudge prophets to speak, to plant visions like seeds in their minds, to get through to us, and then ultimately to share our own existence as one of us--that reveals God's deep intentionality.  There's nothing haphazard or random about the incarnation of God in Jesus. This isn't a whim of a bored deity, looking for some new thrill of experience otherwise unavailable up in heaven.  This isn't a half-baked scheme, either.   It is God's conscious, chosen path to communicate with us.

We get a glimpse of what that is like in the effort and thought it takes to write someone else a note.  We get a hint of the love, care, and attention God has poured out to humanity in the way we have to craft a letter.  And when the other person receives what you write and reads it, they realize how important they were to you that you took the time to put pen to paper.  That means all the more in a society full of instant communication.  The choice to be patient and thoughtful rather that quick and mindless goes a long way.  Even before you get to any other words, the mere choice to write shows someone else they were worth taking the time for.  What a gift that is.

So today, as a way of learning maybe just a bit more deeply how beloved we are that God chose to communicate so deliberately with us, take the time and make the effort to write a note to someone else.  It doesn't have to be long or poetic--just real, and just you being authentic.  And as you place your envelope in the mailbox, know that God has gone to even greater lengths to communicate with us all.

Lord God, thank you for reaching out to us.  Thank you for Jesus, for all the prophets who got our attention, and for your continuing to speak to us that we might know you.