I love getting letters, not so much the bills or circulars, but letters from friends and relatives. These days, I rarely get letters written on plain stationery, and when I do, I appreciate that someone has taken the time to share their thoughts and feelings in that way. Usually, though, I receive greeting cards, and they are always a delight!

It’s great fun to see what image someone has sent me. Even before I’ve opened it and read the message written in the words inside, I see a message in the picture on the front. The colours and style already communicate something to me. If the image is of certain kinds of things, such as flowers or shells or beaches and the sea, then I know that my friend has thought specially of me!

These things show me that they know me and I can feel their love even before I’ve read what they’ve written inside. I like to keep some of the cards I receive in a box to re-read from time to time, especially when I’m feeling lonely or when the distances between us seem so great.

Can you imagine what it would be like to receive a letter or a card from God? If you got a message from God, what do you think it would say? If there was a picture on the card, what would it show? How would you know God was thinking specially of you and not just sending out a form letter that could be given to anyone?

There are so many messages in the Bible about how much God loves us, from the very beginning of the Bible all the way through to the end. The story of creation in the first chapter has God creating different bits of the world and at the end of each act of creation, God gives a blessing, a sign of love.

The places where we read most of the messages about God’s love are in the Gospels, the accounts of Jesus’s life on earth. Jesus is always telling his friends how much God loves them. He also talks about how best we can please God and how we can live according to God’s will for us, but above all, Jesus emphasises God’s love, in his words as well as in his actions. Jesus’s whole life was to show how much God loves us.

Why don’t you take a moment and write yourself a letter from God – a letter filled with love and compassion. What do you think God would like to say to you today?

Revd Christina Rees