Thank you....twenty years later

I received the best e-mail this morning. It totally rocked my world, but for reasons other than what you might think. Before I tell you about the content of the e-mail, we need to go back 20 years.

I worked at a company for 17 years in Auburn with some great people. One of them was a young divorced man in engineering that was a Marine reserve. He was a single father with custody of his young son and had just received orders for deployment. Now I know that today, this is an everyday occurence. I would imagine everybody knows someone that has been on or is currently on deployment. This was not the case twenty years ago. Before he left, a bunch of us got together and took him out for his send off. I remember talking with him and seeing the fear of the unknown in his eyes. I remember the despair he felt of leaving his young son with someone else to care for. But as with all soldiers, he answered the call. He provided us with his address and asked us to send letters. Of course, I obliged but I honestly don't recall if I wrote one letter or fifty. Luckily he came home and later married another friend of mine and they are living happily ever after.

So, here is the e-mail I received:

Twenty years ago, you took the time out of your life to write me, a U.S. Marine. I was in a place that I didn't know the outcome. One of the things that I did know was that I had the support of many people back home. I want you to know that I appreciate the letters that you sent to me back then and I still appreciate them now. I still have every letter that you sent me. I have been reviewing them lately and just had to send you a note to let you know that I still consider you a very special person. You comforted me in a time that was beyond my state of being. We may not have seen much of one another in the years since, but believe me, you are still near to my heart. Please continue to support our troops even though the government may not be as strong as it was back then. They are the ones that pay the price.

The reason it rocked my world is not the fact that he was thanking me for something I did. It is the fact that doing something so simple as writing a letter can have such an huge impact on someone else. I could not have spent more than 15 minutes per letter. How many e-mails do I get every holiday season asking me to send a card to a soldier and I don't take the time? How many missionaries would love to get a card of encouragement? I love to send out "just because" cards, but I don't do it near enough. E-mails seem to be the norm, but they can't hold a candle to the hand written letter or card. You know the feeling when you grab your mail and you see a brightly colored envelope sticking out in the pile of bills and junk mail. It just gives the heart a little lift. One of my previous posts was that I hoped to send out more cards to encourage others. Just as my letters encouraged him twenty years ago, his e-mail encouraged me. And that is what is really all about.

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17