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“You’ve got mail.” Sounds like a greeting from your postman.

“Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from their swift completion of their appointed rounds,” says the familiar motto attributed to the postal service mail carriers who deliver mail six days a week to your address.

In the age of technology, “you’ve got mail” is identified as an electronic voice telling you to check your e-mail box. Our ancestors could not imagine sending a message instantly to anyone anywhere in the world who has access to a computer or smart phone, and the internet.

According to recent statistics worldwide, there are 4.5 billion email users. It’s estimated that every day over 333 billion emails are sent and received, and 49% of those emails are considered spam – electronic junk mail.

The speed of e-mail as compared to the postal service regular delivery has caused the latter to earn the nickname “snail-mail.” But even the post office can guarantee mail will travel overnight and arrive the next day.

Have you ever heard of V-mail? During World War II, V-mail or Victory mail was the name for the letters exchanged between home and the soldiers fighting in Europe.

Then there’s voice mail, the message you leave on answering machines or phone systems as soon as you hear the sound of the tone. While driving around town recently, I noticed a church sign that read, “God answers knee-mail.” I thought, “What a great way to remind people to pray.”

Maybe it’s the kid in me, but I still look forward to finding a letter in the mailbox addressed to me. A sealed envelope begs to be opened, whether or not the return address is familiar. I treasure the letters and greeting cards I’ve received from my husband, my parents and grandparents and special friends through the years. Reading the cards and letters from my parents and grandparents (all of them now in heaven), I see their unique handwriting and cherish their words of love and encouragement to me. I can hear their voices in their words.

You’ve got mail from God and so do I. “The Bible is a letter God has sent to us,” according to theologian Matthew Henry. A patriarch of the faith once said, “Be astounded that God should have written to us.”

It’s a personal letter written to each one of us that begs to be opened. God’s letter tells you and me how much He loves us. The Word of God contains pages of precious promises to us. We can read the epistles or letters that the Apostle Paul wrote from prison to the church members in Corinth, Greece and other places like Ephesus and Galatia. Then there are rules to live by, like the Ten Commandments and Beatitudes.

God’s letter is His inspired and infallible Word. Read your Bible like you would your e-mail or letters every day. You can read various translations of the Bible on websites such as www.biblegateway.com. The Bible was “written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his name” (John 20:31).

— Jan White has compiled a collection of her columns in her book, “Everyday Faith for Daily Life.”