Photo and Commentary (c)2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, September 7, 2025
I found it in a book in a used bookstore, in the religion section. It may have been used as a bookmark, but what puzzles me is that it seems to be firmly sealed, never opened. I don’t think I could use an unopened card as a bookmark; I would need to open it, read it, and perhaps then use it as a bookmark!
If I’m reading the postmark correctly, it was stamped on June 1, 2020, in San Diego. One unique feature is the postage stamp, which I’m intentionally blurring here. It’s a custom design from minted.com, and features a photo of a couple, arms around each other, gazing joyfully into each other’s eyes. My guess is that it’s a thank you note for a wedding gift. Although it could be a wedding announcement, with its modest size due to it being the early months of the global pandemic, so perhaps a small, socially-distanced wedding had occurred and was being announced.
This envelope is not addressed to me, so I’m not going to open it. I’m going to put it in another envelope, with a note explaining where and when I found it, and send it on to the family in Bellevue. They’ll have a second chance at opening this card! (If they still live at this address.)
I could just throw it away, but that doesn’t set easy with me. The words in the card may not be all that consequential, but they were sent with a purpose and I feel the need to try to connect them with their intended readers.
And yes, this makes me think of Jesus.
He was sent to this planet hundreds of years ago, God’s (air mail? heir male?) letter to everyone He could reach with His teaching and preaching and healing and rebuking and loving. I don’t recall reading in the Bible about anyone not “opening” His message. The issue was how they responded to what they heard.
Many people listened to His words without understanding:
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’ (Matthew 13:13-15 NKJV)
Most of the religious leaders listened, then twisted His words and used them against Him:
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. (Matthew 22:15 NIV)
The rich young ruler turned away sadly, having quickly counted the price of following Jesus and finding it too steep:
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matthew 10:21,22 NIV)
And yet:
. . . the common people heard Him gladly. (Mark 12:37b, NKJV)
I like to think that I would have been one of the common people, that nothing He said would have threatened me, or caused me to turn away, but that I would have allowed the Holy Spirit to draw me into the current of His love.
But I don’t need to speculate on what I would have done back then and there, because I have the chance to respond to Him, now and here. Day after day I can open my Bible, His invitation to me, and ask the Holy Spirit to show me truth, and give me the grace and power and wisdom to live it out.
The RSVP is up to me.