A Letter from Ed

Somewhere on my journey of discovery, I as a kid began to notice my parents’ mail.  It always sat in a pile at the end of the kitchen counter, not lovingly placed there, but  more slide across the counter like some vexation to the soul. Being naturally curious and precocious, I begin to flip through it. Grocery flyers, political postcards -looked boring to me, and then I noticed horror of horrors, bills!!   Electric bills, phone bills, repair bills, I quietly slip them back in the pile and slink away.  Suddenly I’m glad I am a kid and begin to retract that eternal wish every child has,

“I wish I was a grown up.”

 But whether you like it or not, the day comes along with the mail, and ‘whola’- you’re  a grown up!  From the times of carrier pigeons delivering little messages  attached to their tiny legs to the Pony Express traveling hundreds of miles, people have anxiously awaited  their  mail  or a message from a loved one. As Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice famously askes her sister upon returning from the southeastern corner of England…  

“What news from Kent?”

Mail is a big deal to a lot of folks, for the elderly and retired, it is the highlight of their day, sometimes their whole day revolves around getting the mail. Getting the mail either by walking down to the box from their house or drive to the Post Office to get it, is a thing for the elderly. It’s like they still matter, they are still relevant.

For my grandma, it was a job in itself, collecting and categorizing, each piece. She had mail all over her house! Tied up in little rubber bands, and categorized, stacks for political campaigns, coupons and  bills, and then there was one stack placed prominently at the top center of her desk, that was reserved for a man. Ed McMahon precisely and his company, The Publishers Clearing house. She once called me up and exclaimed,

“I got it, I got it, I got the winning Ed McMan letter!” You better drive over here and sit with me as I wait for Ed. “I will buy some Colonel Sanders Chicken, and we can wait for him together.”  

I am sure she imagined it a lovely afternoon.

“Grandma” I protest, “your house is two hours away.!”  She does not care how long it takes me and I lose the argument. By the end of the week, I am at her house and we sit there in her little apartment waiting for Ed McMahon. By the middle of the day, I ask to see this letter from Ed. I lift it up close to my eyes and read every word of that 10 paragraph four page letter and then come to the one word that changes everything…. “if!”  If you have the winning numbers Ed will come visit you and personally deliver a  ten thousand dollar check to you.

 As Kindly as I can state it, “Grandma come over here.” Surprisingly, she is not upset, maybe because I came and visited her and once again, she is relevant and that is worth more than ten thousand dollars.

We love because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19