It was a quiet day; the guns, mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn’t been heard. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the Lord’s day. As he sat 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 I don’t have a Bible and can’t buy one in this country, I’ve decided to think about 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 (Ephesians 4:4-6).
The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments (Hebrews 8:6–7).
The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost (2 Corinthians 13:14).
The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (cf. John 20:30–31).
The Five is for the five virgins that were wise (Matthew 25:1–13).
The Six is for the six days it took God to create the heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1–31).
The Seven is for the day God rested after making His creation (Genesis 2:1–3).
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 (Genesis 6–9; 2 Peter 2:5).
The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him (Luke 17:17).
The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone (Exodus 20).
The Jack is a reminder of Satan, now the joker of eternal hell (1 Peter 5:8).
The Queen stands for the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18–25).
The King stands for Jesus, for He is the King of all kings (1 Timothy 6:15).
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 (Genesis 1:14). 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, he said, “Soldier, may I borrow that deck of cards?”
“Think on these things.” Philippians 4:8
—http://www.housetohouse.com/HTHPubPage.aspx?pub=2&issue=602§ion=718&article=4562