A Deck of Cards is More Than a Game

My mother had been a member of two bridge groups for over thirty-five years. They got together every week for laughter and fellowship. Oh how much my mother loved to play bridge. She wore out cards so fast! Every year for Christmas I would place a new deck into her stocking.

Shopping for that perfect deck of cards was not easy, but could be quite interesting. Mother was a history student throughout her life, so finding just the right picture or motif on them was important to me. Equally fun was to find that one deck having unique characters representing the face cards.

Did you know that those face cards were originally designed to represent actual kings and queens—royalty from actual history? When I think about such a representation of reality, I drift off into thoughts of how a deck of cards is a lot like a person. The outside picture doesn’t tell us much about the actual person. We have to turn the deck over and look inside at the individual cards and what is represented therein.

Looking at the cards one by one, we can come to know and appreciate, or dislike, that deck as a whole. A deeper look into the character of a person tells a lot about the history of where they’ve been and what they’ve experienced. Much of it remains hidden just as any hand dealt during the game of life. Cards are revealed or discarded. Character is developed.

Some decks are stacked or fixed to sway the odds towards winning or losing. We usually never suspect such dastardly designs. It is naïve to think that everything and everyone is good and straightforward all of the time. Part of becoming an adult is the development of an internal meter or ability to listen to a well-developed gut feeling that can identify good character or a stacked deck.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out (Proverbs 10:9).

Surrounding ourselves with the right people of integrity is a great start to not only becoming wise but to also disseminate that wisdom and integrity to others—including the stacked decks. Yes, the learning curve can be painful, but surrounding yourself with good people and the armor of God can help to lessen the sting and give us hope for a quality deck of cards.

We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

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