I first saw this story while I was in Vietnam, It still brings a catch to my voice and a tear to my eye. These are the guys we're turning pens for folks!
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, one of God's first angels, but he got
kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker 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
pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"
Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our
soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting
for us.
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