Thank God for the United States Postal Service

Ever since I was a boy, one of my favorite things to do is “get the mail.” For most of my childhood and into my late teens and early adult years that meant crossing the road in front of my parents’ rural home to our little red barn mailbox, and opening the small door to see what missives, publications or, best of all, parcels, our mail lady may have delivered. Now, getting the mail means unlocking the small, silver box fixed to the right of our front door. While the mechanism has changed, the ritual hasn’t for this daily delight.

And for that reason, I thank God for the United States Postal Service. With work largely taken for granted, and a staff that’s mostly invisible to the general public, the USPS quietly, steadily and faithfully delivers to our homes and businesses 355 days a year. On average, the men and women in postal blue daily deliver (7,184 of them entirely on foot) 509 million pieces of mail to homes and business across the country from Key West, FL to Barrow, AK. In 2015, the USPS processed and delivered 154.2 billion pieces of mail, nearly 50% of the world’s mail volume, and generated $68.8 billion in operating revenue. By any measure, it’s a big operation. But in the midst of its bigness, the USPS, through the letters and packages it brings, touches our lives in very personal ways.

In an age that continues to become ever more digitized, the USPS still remains the most tangibly personal way of communicating with each other.  While text, email and social media are cheap and quick, a mere 47 cents (or 34 cents if you are the postcard type) allows us to send the most private of communications in the most secure and reliable method available. Heartfelt notes of thanks, joyful invitations, and cards of comfort after a devastating loss are among the precious cargo being carried by postal workers across the miles via planes, trains, trucks, ferries, helicopters, subways, hovercraft, bicycles, and even mules.  Living thousands of miles from our families, Mikaela and I are able to be a part of holidays and special occasions  with loved ones as the USPS transports our cards and packages to and from each other, despite obstacles like inclement weather.

And lest you think I’m getting too sentimental, the USPS serves us practically as well. Each week, we receive mailings with the most recent coupons and ads, both of which we utilize several times a month. Even though we find discounts and digital coupons online, nothing beats the convenience of having those kind of tools handily in our mailbox. And while I can’t say I’m always thankful for it, the mailman also brings us our bills—a practical prevention for me not to forget to pay the electric company.

While most of the over 625,000 folks who work for the USPS remain faceless to us, we thankfully have the opportunity to interact with the real live beings who fill our mailboxes each day. When I was growing up, it was Cindy. Now it's Frank, a tall, friendly postman, originally from Africa, who graces our doorstep each day. One of our neighbors, Jack, was a mail carrier in our city for decades decades ago, long before the conveniences of modern technology.  

Pop culture has given us beloved representatives of the USPS:  the rugged Ben Pentland of the Christy novels and TV series; the absent-minded, but tender-hearted Wooton Bassett, of the family radio drama Adventures in Odyssey; and the mystery-solving postal detectives of the Hallmark Channel's Signed, Sealed, Delivered.  Of course, the USPS has contributed to pop culture itself with its impressive, growing collection of creative postage stamps. The fictional characters along with the real-life men and women we encounter at the mailbox and post office, remind us that the daily event of getting the mail is the result of a truly human endeavor.

The United States Postal Service isn’t perfect. But for a public service that runs entirely without taxpayer dollars, I’d say it’s one government program that does alright. So the next time you’re looking for a blessing to count, include the USPS among them—it just might be bringing you a coupon for a free meal.

Saved from What?

It’s not often I read sermons (like most people, I usually listen to them), but I recently read one given this past Christmas Eve. It was contemplative, and gave much to consider in regards to the incarnation of Jesus, the coming of God in the flesh into our world. I appreciated the pastor’s thoughtfulness; she touched on aspects of Christ’s infancy that I’d not considered. (You can read the entire sermon here). But her sermon took an unexpected turn when she described the “salvation” that the Baby in the Manger had come to bring:

You see, we need the child to save us. We need the baby Jesus to transform the world, change us from a family that chooses violence, war, and suffering into a family that responds with peace, love and justice. From his swaddling clothes, resting in the crook of Mary’s arm, looking out at a confused world, we need this Jesus to save us…

Jesus, on this night, and throughout the rest of his life, asks for only one thing. Jesus asks us to love him and then share that same love with one another…

[God’s] love is the only thing that will save us. Tonight, you have gathered around the manger. Tonight, you have gathered up the infant Jesus into your arms. Tonight, you become part of the salvation of the world…

There is no denying the incredible power of the love of God, and its capacity to redeem us. But there is great spiritual danger in the pastor’s conclusion. She indicates that mankind’s problem is chiefly in our relationship towards one another. Her analysis is that our greatest need as human beings is to be saved from ourselves. Her solution to our problem is to adopt Jesus’ example of love and follow it. By doing so, we can save ourselves from ourselves. But this is a misdiagnosis.

While the pastor describes the brokenness of relationships among mankind, she says nothing about the brokenness of mankind’s relationship with God.  That vertical brokenness is a direct result of our sin. And therein lies our greatest need: to be saved from the just punishment of God for our sin against Him. That sin has earned us an eternal sentence of separation from God in Hell, frequently referred to in Scripture as the “wrath of God.” We justly deserve this punishment, in the same way that a criminal justly deserves the punishment for his crime.

Jesus entered the picture, not to improve mankind’s earthly condition (though He certainly did that), but to become our substitute, to take upon Himself as a truly perfect sacrifice all the just wrath of God for our sin. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:6-9)

For those who trust in what Christ has done, God no longer holds their sin against them. Instead, He accounts their sins as “paid in full” because of Christ’s sacrificial death and considers them righteous, no longer under impending, eternal judgment in Hell. This is the salvation of which the Scripture speaks.  And it has been done because of the great, great love of God for us.

Those who are saved from God’s wrath by faith in Christ are indeed transformed, and the love of Christ fills their heart. These people become a new kind of incarnation of Christ, the “hands and feet,” as it were, of the Savior. Through them, the world is bettered in innumerable ways. But the primary impact they bring is through the heralding of the Good News of salvation to those who have not yet heard it or believed it.

If those unbelievers among us only have their lives improved by the temporary benefits of Christian love and charity, then such “saving” is pointless because ultimately, the “saved” will spend an eternity in Hell. We do well to remember that every person who encountered Jesus at His first coming—those  He taught, those He loved, those He healed, even those He raised from the dead—eventually all died and faced eternity.  Their true salvation was conditional upon their response to Jesus’ exhortation to repent and believe. His call to this salvation continues on until He comes again.