Read My Lips - the blog

Dec. 30, 2005

I apologize for not posting a joke for last week's version, but I was on the road with Susan and Stephen touring Washington, D.C., Atlantic City, and NYC. It was thrifty road trip, being Susan's Christmas gift. Anyway, we all had fun and if enough of you beg me to do so, I will share some pictures we took. Now, let us get back to the show:

There was a man who worked for the Post Office, whose job it was to process all the mail that had wrong addresses.

One day, a letter came to his desk addressed in shaky handwriting to God. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. He opened it and read:

Dear God,

I am an 93-year-old widow, living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?

Sincerely, Edna

The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to his fellow workers. Each of them dug into their wallets and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman.

The rest of the day, all of the workers felt a warm glow for the kind thing they had done.

Christmas came and went. A few days later another letter came from the old lady to God. All of the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read:

Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift. By the way, there was $4 missing. I think it must have been those thieves at the Post Office.

Sincerely, Edna