Greater Waco Emmaus Community Septembre 2017 Newsletter Words to Encourage by Lori Cotton, Spiritual Director 2 Corinthians 3:3 (CEB) – You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us. You weren’t written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You weren’t written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. I don’t receive a lot of letters anymore. Now, emails… that’s another story. And texts! It’s especially difficult to interpret tone and meaning in a text message. There’s usually not enough to it! I have saved many letters over the years from family and friends, letters of significance professionally, and letters from my walk to Emmaus. Letters actually say more than just the words on a page. Letters can reveal many things about the writer and can say many things to the receiver. The content, the handwriting, the words used all say something about the writer. Some letters are written in such a way as to put the reader in touch with deep feelings of the writer. It’s a gift to be able to read someone’s heart. And we get to read so much of Paul’s heart in his different letters to the different churches he helped to start two thousand years ago. In the verse above from 2 Corinthians, Paul is describing what it is like to see the compassion, sense of justice, goodness and love of Christ in someone’s life. Joyce Rupp in her book Fresh Bread and Other Gifts of Spiritual Nourishment writes, “To be a letter from Christ is to be so transparent that the goodness of our inner selves is seen, the qualities of Jesus shine forth in us like messages shine from a letter penned from the depths of one’s heart.” She asks, “What is it to have the qualities of Jesus written on our hearts?” In order to be letters written by Christ, we have to have the qualities of Jesus in our hearts, and the qualities of Jesus which you have written on your heart may depend on who you have discovered Christ to be in your life. Spend some time today reading about Jesus. List some qualities of Jesus from your readings and reflect on how these qualities are written on your heart because you are a letter from Jesus to those in your life. You are a letter from Jesus to everyone you meet – the cashier scanning your groceries at HEB, the police officer writing you a ticket, the driver that just took “your” parking place, the homeless person on the corner, the salesperson who seems to be ignoring you… And here’s the twist: they all may be a letter from Jesus to you. Let’s pray: God of grace, help us to reflect the qualities of Jesus, especially compassion, to those around us. And help us to see others as letters from Christ, too. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. De Colores! Lori Cotton
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