Summary: A Letter to God - English Class 10

The story, “A Letter to God” by G.L Fuentes revolves around the idea of having unquestionable belief in something. The story is set in a Latin American country. Lencho, the farmer, who is the protagonist of the story, writes a letter to God seeking help from the almighty after discovering his entire crop yield destroyed by a devastating hailstorm. Although, his wishes get fulfilled partially, if not completely, he is ungrateful in the end and questions the honesty and modesty of the post-masters who actually helped him with money (anonymously) in the name of god.

A Letter to God : Summary

• Lencho was poor but a dedicated farmer. He was hoping for a good harvest. But unfortunately his bad luck, a hailstorm came suddenly and destroyed all his crops and harvest completely. 
• This has broken his heart. However, he had a strong faith in God. He was a literate man who knew how to read and write. 
• Due to his faith in God, he was certain that God would definitely help him.  So, he decided to write a letter to God while addressing his economical concerns to him. 
• In the letter, he requested God to send him one hundred pesos to harvest his fields again and save his family from starvation. 

• Soon he wrote a letter and went to the post office. He placed a stamp on the letter and dropped it into the mailbox.
• When the postman took out the letter from the post-box, he laughed with a full heart after reading it. 
• He immediately rushed to the postmaster and showed him the weird letter. The postmaster read the letter but laughed out loud when he noticed that the letter was addressed to God. 

• However, he was also moved by the belief of the farmer with which the letter was written to God.
• He praised the poor farmer’s unquestionable faith in God and decided to help him. Soon, he asked the employees of the post office to contribute some money as a charity and also gave a part of his salary so that Lencho’s faith in God is not broken. 

• However, the money collected was a little less than what Lencho had requested from God. 
• The postmaster then put all the money collected in an envelope and addressed it to the poor farmer.
• The very next Sunday, Lencho went to the post office to check if there was a letter for him. The postmaster politely handed over the letter to him. Lencho was not surprised at all to see the letter with money inside the envelope.
• He excitedly opened the envelope to count the money but became angry when he saw that there was only seventy pesos in it. He was sure that God could have never made such a blunder. 
• He instantly went to the window to ask for paper and ink and wrote another letter to God and dropped it into the letterbox.
• When Lencho had left the place, the postmaster opened and read his letter immediately. In it, Lencho had raised a complaint to God that he had initially requested one hundred pesos, but he was upset to find seventy pesos only. 
• Moreover, he criticized the post office employees and felt that they must have stolen the remaining thirty pesos from his envelope. 
• He requested God to send him the rest of the money since he was in urgent need of it. 
• However, he requested God not to send the money through the mail because Lencho thought that the post office employees were a bunch of crooks who might have stolen the remaining money from the envelope.

Theme of the Story

The story discusses the power of innocent faith in God by a man and how is able to accomplish his want through it. The story ends with an irony. 

Message of the story

• The story "The Letter To God" is about the faith and believe in the God which Lencho had. At the time when his crops were destroyed he find God to be the person who would help him. His faith in God made the money reach him.

• The other message which can be pointed out is the nature of the post-officer who made Lencho's faith towards God more strong. He helped him in disguise.
• The last message which can be noted is about Lencho's reaction towards the people working in the post-office. Without knowing the reality he made the conclusion that they have stolen his money.