JLY!!!

     Al and I just returned from a wonderful, whirlwind week in Michigan. Every day was full, spending time with family, going to the zoo with our daughter Shanda and her two youngest boys and attending a wonderful concert by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at a large church in downtown Detroit.

     When we got home on Saturday afternoon, there was a pile of mail, newspapers and magazines waiting for us…a whole week’s worth of correspondence. However, only one envelope out of that stack seemed to be a personal note. It was addressed to Al with a return address of JLY, and a PO Box number from Altus, Oklahoma.

      Inside was a bright red business card with “Jesus Loves You” (JLY) imprinted on one side and “JOHN 3:16” on the other! There wasn’t a letter or any explanation of why the card was sent to us.

      I recognized it right away: we had received an identical card in the mail about a year ago. The post office stamp showed that it was from Fort Worth with no return address or signature. It stirred up our imagination, causing us to wonder who would have sent it. Did someone do it as a joke, knowing that we were Christians??? The little card also reminded us of God’s love and grace which has been poured out upon us through Jesus’ death on the cross.

     So who is sending us these reminders? We still don’t know. However, the timing in both instances was perfect. Jesus loves us! That truth strengthens us and helps us to keep moving forward in our walk with Him.

       May the Lord help us all to remember and spread the good news of “JLY” wherever we go this month!

“…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17b-19 NIV
(published in the October 2013 GAUMC Messenger)