A Letter to Harriet

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

“I’m glad we bought this,” Rhea said as she and Mom inspected their flea market

purchase—a beat-up antique dresser. “It’s old, but I really like it.”

“I do too,” Mom said. “And it will be beautiful once we’ve refinished it.”

Rhea nodded and began pulling the drawers out to clean them. When she removed the second drawer, she thought she heard something fall. Seeing an envelope, she picked it up. On the front was one word: Harriet.

“Look, Mom. Someone left a letter in this drawer. There’s no address, only a first name.”

“Maybe there’s something inside that will identify the owner,” said Mom.

Rhea pulled out the letter and began reading. “Oh, this is dated years ago,” she said. “It mentions some stuff that happened ‘last week,’ according to the letter, but I don’t know what it’s talking about. There’s a couple of names, but no explanation of who those people are. And the guy who wrote this just signed his first name.” Rhea handed the letter to Mom. “None of this makes any sense to me.”

“I don’t get it either,” Mom said after scanning the letter. “Letters don’t make a lot of sense if you don’t know the people they’re written to or who they’re from.”

“Probably the only person who would understand this letter was Harriet, whoever she was,” Rhea observed. “Or maybe if you knew the author, you’d know what he was talking about.”

Mom nodded and carefully placed the letter back in the envelope. “This makes me think of another letter that people sometimes say doesn’t make sense.”

“What letter is that?” asked Rhea.

“The Bible,” Mom replied. “It’s a letter to us from God. But in order for it to make sense, we need to have a relationship with Him—just like Harriet and the author of this letter had to have a relationship to know what was being said. We need God to open our eyes to His truth and show us our need for a Savior—Jesus. Once we have that relationship, God continues to help us understand what He says in His Word so we can know Him better.”

Rhea took the envelope from her mom. “Let’s keep this letter as a reminder of God’s letter to us.” • Kelly M. Schaefer

How About You?

Is the Bible a mystery to you? Do you have a hard time understanding it? You can never truly understand the Bible without knowing its Author—you need to have a relationship with God’s Son, Jesus. (See “Have You Heard the Good News?” on page 102.) The Bible is His letter that tells us about God and His love for us. As you read the Bible and get to know Jesus better, trust Him to help you understand His Word more and more.

Today’s Key Verse:
2 Timothy 1:10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. (NLT)

Today’s Key Thought:

The Bible is God’s letter to us