LightGrams
May 11, 2017
Volume 21, Number 16
The letter Melissa Fahy found in a gap under the stairs of her Westfield, New Jersey home was an old one. Written by a woman named Virginia to her husband, a sailor in the Norwegian Navy, it was postmarked May 1945. The letter was filled with love and admiration.
Melissa set out to find the couple so she could return this special missive. Finally she located the husband, Rolf Christofferson, now 96 years old and living in California. Virginia had died six years earlier, it was learned, but Rolf’s son read the letter to his father. Melissa later commented to WNBC-TV in New York, “I guess it’s his wife coming back and making her memory alive again.”
My siblings and I are blessed to have a large collection of letters written between our mother and father during World War 2. Reading them is like hearing their voices, speaking of their love, their fears, their daily lives. Our father has been gone for over 11 years, but these letters preserve for the ages the personality and the values that made him such a noble man.
In 2 Kings 22 we read of a young king of Judah named Josiah. He came to power when he was only 8 years old, but developed into a true servant of God. After ordering repairs to the temple in Jerusalem, an astonishing discovery was made: “Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord'” (2 Kings 22:8).
The spiritual condition of Judah had fallen to a very low point over the previous 50 years or so. Idolatry had replaced true worship, and God’s law had been cast aside. With the discovery of this old copy of the Book of the Law, however, changes were set in motion. King Josiah’s response to a reading of the Book was “that he tore his clothes” (2 Kings 22:11). He realized that God’s ways had been sorely neglected for too long.
Not many years later the prophet Jeremiah would urge the people of Judah with these words: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the way and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16). Sadly, as the verse goes on to note, “they said, ‘We will not walk in it.'”
For millions of people in the world today, the Bible is a lost book. True, it remains a bestseller, but how many actually hear the message of the Bible? If they hear it, how many actually walk in its ways? Have we learned anything from ancient Judah?
May more among us make the discovery – “I have found the Book of the Law!” And then may we determine to know this Book and to follow it!
Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.
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Copyright, 2017, Timothy D. Hall. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New King James Version (Copyright, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc.).
“LightGrams” is produced by the Central Church of Christ, 2722 Oakland Avenue, Johnson City, Tennessee, 37601, and is written by Tim Hall, minister. It is sent free of charge every Thursday to all who request it. To subscribe or to receive more information, write to “[email protected]” (our E-mail address), to the U.S. mail address above, or call (423) 282-1571.
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