The Mark I Make

                                                                                                                                                                                        

         I was a non-traditional student in college, going after being out of high school about thirty years. When one of the professors learned our family visited South Dakota every summer during the first class, of a 'break the ice -type of meet and greet,' where each student was to share something unique about themselves, we became fast friends.  It turned out my Professor’s mother-in-law lived in the very city we stayed when we were there!  

            As the semester moved on, my Professor shared her mother-in-law had developed cancer.  Of course, she nor her husband, because of work, could go be with her.  Thankfully there was another son who lived closer, so she wasn’t alone.  Still I felt bad for my Professor and her family.  I asked for her mother-in-law’s address and for months, on a weekly- or occasional by-weekly basis, sent this woman I’d never met, a 'thinking of you card'.  It wasn’t anything special, but both my Professor and her mother-in-law seemed grateful.  Since that time, she and I have met and have also developed a unique friendship!

            There is something about getting mail from a mail box.  Many older adults take a while adapting to email—and some don’t use it at all.  Their only correspondence is via ‘snail mail’ as it is affectionately called sometimes, and they love walking to the mail box and see some kind of written note waiting for them.

            In fact, recently a friend just had a birthday, who lost the husband she adored a year ago.  A large group of us got together and inundated her mail box with birthday cards, to remind her we love her.  She was overwhelmed.   Yet don’t we all need that sometimes?

When a person writes often, the recipient can look at the writing on the envelope and immediately know who has written.  We each have a unique style of writing.  Even my professors, in many cases could identify a paper without a name on it by the handwriting and, or, the way the paper was written.

When we read the Psalms, because of the way they are written, most of us know immediately they were written by David, and the Proverbs, because of their unique style, are also readily identifiable. There are other books of the Bible which again, we find this is the case.  But ultimately we know the Bible is God’s handwriting.  He has left his ‘mark’ on the entire world through these words.

There are those who would say the words of the Bible were written by human hands and therefore can’t be Gods.  Any Believer however, knows that the words are God inspired, and they absolutely have His mark!  

As I look at the words I pen, or even the behaviors I project, which I leave in this world on the people around me, ---those I know or even strangers, ---it causes me pause.  What is the ‘mark’ I am making?  Are people seeing God, my Creator, in what I write or how I respond to circumstances?  Am I making a positive difference? 

Our world ---even our country is in a huge battle, in what some might say is between good and evil.  The ultimate conflict may even end in a physical battle of some kind, although I loathe the thought.  Are we as Believers leaving our mark as…. Believers?  Do others know where we stand against the fiery darts of Satan and his minions who threaten to overtake us?

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