A Postcard

by Pastor Marty

One night, in early December, I received a random email. This person was trying to track down a family relation to a Rev. Tollefson who lived in South Dakota in the 1920s. Oh my! I was skeptical. I reluctantly kept reading. Long story short, this person described my great uncle, Rev. Sander Tollefson. My parents spoke with much admiration for Sander. I never knew him because he died three months before I was born.

So, why the email? A postcard.

A postcard, dated July 1, 1918, was discovered in a wall of this person’s house after some renovation. Apparently, the house was, at one time, where Sander and his wife Gunda lived. The postcard was sent to that address and has resided in that house for 102 years! After I made my claim, the postcard was again in circulation, and I receive it a few days later. The writing is hard to read. The sender is unknown. The person seemingly refers to college classes and speaks of the Tollefsons as “good friends” during the challenges of the last pandemic. The postcard has stirred more questions than answers.

Who sent the postcard? What was the nature of the relationship? Why was the postcard kept, and then apparently lost, and then found, and then sent to another pastor relative? Sander would have been surprised to learn that his relatives were reading his mail a century later. We never know where it will go….

The Apostle Paul wrote letters. Every time we read the words of Paul; we are essentially reading someone else’s mail. Each letter has a particular address, and yet, we have learned that his letters are also for us (Rom. 4.23-24)! It is hard to over-imagine how important the collection of Paul’s letters have been for Christianity. In his letter to the people in Corinth, he says, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus ….” These words, some of the earliest in the New Testament, are thousands of years old. These words meet us in the present to bless!

We never know where it will go…our words, notes, emails, texts, letters, postcards along with our actions. So, have at it! Bless someone. Encourage. Influence. Remind others what they mean to you. Live into your purpose. Give thanks. Celebrate. Share God’s love wildly. We know this, right? Yes, but a postcard, dated July 1, 1918, took 102 years to reach my house with this great reminder. I might even suggest that this postcard showed up on time!

So, go ahead, bless someone today, and who knows, maybe you will end up blessing people somewhere in the future. How fun is that? You never know where it goes…but God does!

-- Pastor Marty

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