How I miss getting letters. There are generations who may never know the comfort of receiving a letter that brings news and assurance. In its brief salutation, John’s letter to seven Christian communities contains welcome and blessing, warning to the unfaithful and comfort to the faithful.
John reminds those to whom he writes that they are loved and freed. He looks to the time when Christ will come again. Alpha and Omega. Christian community begins and ends with God, revealed in Jesus Christ. Christ is the centre, the focus of every Christian community. All that community does, every part of its being, is to be immersed in the freedom gained for us through Christ’s death and resurrection.
There is much that conspires to blur our focus, to draw us away from the focus of Christian life. The beginning of John’s letter pulls us back into focus.
The art of letter writing may have fallen by the wayside, yet words written and preserved over two millennia ago continue to focus us on our Redeemer and Saviour.
Christ is risen. Alleluia!
Focus me, O Lord, that I may always keep you at the centre of my life. Grant me courage to resist what pulls me away from you. Make me joyful in serving you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. —