With My Own Hand

At my uncle's funeral, Dr Tom Smiley of Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville, GA introduced me to two novel concepts.  First, he spoke about a system of files he has to save every piece of correspondence he receives from or sends to each of his parishioners.  He got the idea from the vertical filing system in a medical office.  I'd thought about cataloging pictures of the youth that pass through so that at graduation we can present them with an album of their life growing up in the church.  It would probably add a lot of laughter and a little embarrassment to the graduation party as well.  But, I never actually pulled it off.  I suppose in my life, the file would be primarily electronic with a bunch of emails, a few blogs and enormous number of facebook status snapshots.  It just didn't seem the same.
The second was actually my uncle's file itself.  It was thick.  I mean really thick.  I'm sure when he pulled it out of the file, there wasn't much left in the G's folder.  He read passages from several.  It was like having Uncle Dennis back with us for a few moments.  Incredible memories.
I don't know that I will adopt Tom's filing habits.  I receive so little by way of written communication.  But, Uncle Dennis' writing habit ...
To that end, I've written (and mailed - that part is important, too) four letters since I got home from the funeral.  I mean with actual paper and ink pen.  Complete with writer's cramp, crossed out words, misspellings, ink smudges, a paper cut on the tongue from licking the envelope flap and the like.
I don't know how many it takes before it becomes habitual.  I hope it becomes an addiction.

(1Corinthians 16:21; Galatians 6:11; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Philemon 1:19)