Big Letters. Galatians 6.

"See what big letters I make as I write to you with my own hand!" (Galatians 6:11 NET)

One of the drawbacks of being left-handed is that when you first learn to write, everything is oriented for right-handers. (At least this is how it was when I was growing up.) Letters should slant to the right, your paper should be rotated to the ... right or left, I'm not sure, and you should drag your pencil across the paper. Pretty tough to drag, when you're actually pushing the pencil with your hand curled up in a tight ball to try and get the slanting of the letters correct, and the rotation of the paper makes no sense in producing the correct output. Some lefties manage it. I never did. Those of you in class suffer when I get to the board.

My own struggles with handwriting help me relate to the end of Paul's letter. Here's the paraphrase I hear in my head as I read it: "Look, I want to finish up with something really important, and really personal. So I stopped using the computer, and am writing these final words by hand. I hope you can read it, but remember, this is important!" And then he closes the letter with a simple summary of what he has taught through it. Again, Jim's paraphrase: "None of this should matter. Circumcised, uncircumcised, who cares? We really shouldn't even be arguing about this, because what counts is that we have become new people in Christ. Made all over again. So let's act in accordance with that." And then he blesses them in his goodbye.

In case you're wondering, Paul probably didn't do the actual writing of his letters. Instead, he would have dictated the letters to a scribe. This was a common practice and scribes were professionals, trained to be able to write using small letters, getting large documents onto limited space. We don't know whether Paul was incapable of writing with small letters, or if he was using big letters for emphasis, but either way, it did provide emphasis.

I think I can do that too in this post, so I'll try it here.

This is the end of our reading in Galatians. Remember what's important -- we're a new creation. Peace and mercy be on you. Amen.