Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and
land mines for some reason hadn't been heard. The
young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of
the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old
deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why
aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind
and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks to me like you're going to
play cards."

The soldier said, "No, sir. You see, since we are not
allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in
this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by
studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there
is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old
and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the
Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only
five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the
Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making
His creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three
sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from
the flood that destroyed the earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy.
He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God
handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, on of God's first angels,
but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked
ways and is now the joke of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for He is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with
365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week -
52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons:
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen
weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull
out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that
I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute , with tears
in his eyes and a pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I
borrow that deck of cards?"


*Contributed by Story Teller and Shirley. Thank you both
for having such amazingly large hearts.