May 1, 2025 – Good Morning! It’s Thursday, May 1.
Happy May Day! Feel free to dance around a maypole. But the first day of May has another claim to fame. On this day, in 1840, England issued the very first postage stamp. It cost a penny and featured a portrait of Queen Victoria on a black background. The “Penny Black” stamp is worth a pretty penny today!
Messengers have been delivering written messages ever since written language began. Organized postal delivery started in the 1600’s. The United States Postal Service was commissioned in 1792. But, back then, if you received a letter, you were expected to pay on delivery, and postal rates were complicated - so much per page, so much per mile. The stamp placed the cost on the sender and simplified the entire process. May 1, 1840 - a great day in the history of sending letters.
Speaking of letters, I’m blessed with a number of pen pals. I love being a pen pal - with friends, colleagues, family. Letter writing is becoming a lost art and that’s a shame. We express ourselves differently in a letter. There’s room in a letter for a deeper level of communication. Emails and instant messages and social media and zoom chats are fine, but they have a certain ethereal quality - here today, gone tomorrow. You can hold a letter in your hands, save it in a drawer, read it again in twenty years. Nobody’s going to be doing that with texts. It’s also nice to find something personal in your mailbox, along with all the bills and junk mail. A letter is a beautiful thing.
Most of the New Testament is made up of letters. The Apostles Paul, Peter, and John were writing to friends, colleagues, family - to churches. And they, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit . . . were writing to us. It’s nice to receive a letter. And you have 21 waiting for you in your Bible mailbox! And that’s a beautiful thing.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
