This last weekend I played a new card game with the grandchildren. We didn’t have a lot of time, as we were just waiting until our evening meal was ready, but it helped to pass the time. My eldest grandson was giving me various instructions on how to play, telling me what each card meant and so on. In the end, I said we should make a start and they could remind me as we went along. The game is Monopoly Deal, based on the board game but nowhere near as long. So, the game started, and I was happy to do whatever the children advised me. Then I had a dilemma. I had a ‘really good card’ and I could lay it down on the pile, which then meant the older grandson had to hand over one of his ‘best’ complete sets of property. I didn’t want to take the cards from him, but then my younger grandson was trying to persuade me that I should (for obvious reasons!). For a few moments I couldn’t decide what to do. My older boy said it was the whole point of the game, and seemed to be encouraging me to play it, but even so I didn’t like doing it as I thought it would upset him to lose his ‘best’ cards. So, with both telling me to do the right thing, even though I was reluctant I eventually placed the card down. Straight away the one who was going to lose out, placed another card down on top of mine which erased my card and meant he could keep his set! A very good card to hold, indeed an ace card.

Later in the evening, I began to think about this, and about Jesus. How often do we do something because we want to, are persuaded to, or consider we ought to, because after all that is how we should play, that is the rule of the game of life, and yet somehow it doesn’t seem quite right, and indeed we are uncomfortable and know it is wrong, and that someone could get hurt, yet we still do it. Then Jesus comes along and wipes the slate clean, erases everything that has gone on before, and gives us another chance. Perhaps not altogether the perfect analogy, but certainly Jesus is the Ace Card and always a winner.

Thinking about Ace cards, how often do we play our Ace card?

There is nothing wrong in having great achievements, especially if we have worked hard. It is good to support and celebrate one another’s accomplishments, and we can encourage and rejoice in our gifts and blessings from God.  It is only right to celebrate the big moments in our life. However, sometimes we play our ace card to try and impress, and belittle others, to gain more respect or status. We can at times put people down, belittling them, making out they are not as good as we are.

Playing our Ace card can also be a way of covering something up. Like a mask, we can perhaps hide our true feelings instead of being brave enough to share our whole story, honestly. By opening up, it gives our friends and those we are around an opportunity to open up themselves. It can deepen a friendship.

If anyone had a major Ace card to play, then it was Jesus. He fed 5,000 with just 5 small loaves and 2 fish, stilled the raging waves with one command, healed the sick and raised the dead, and so much more, that even John at the end of his version of the gospel, wrote that if everything that Jesus had done was written down, even the whole world would not have room for the books. Yes, it truly was remarkable what Jesus did, however, he did not shout about all his accomplishments from the rooftops or declare to everyone how great and mighty he was. No, instead he was humble and honest wherever he went, and whatever he did, breaking down walls and barriers and going straight to people’s hearts and touching their lives.

 

Finally, there is no doubt that Jesus really did have the best-ever Ace card. When he hung on that Cross at Calvery, having been beaten and spat upon, arrested, and tried, falsely accused, and condemned to death, he breathed his last and final breath, saying, “It is finished”, and with that he had died. Wow! What an Ace card!

Why? because that was not the end. Three days later, on that first Easter morning, Jesus rose again, conquering sin and death, and opening the way for all believers to be reconciled to God and receive a new and eternal life. Like I’ve said, what an Ace card that was! The greatest miracle of all time. No one had a chance to better that. Jesus a winner, and, by faith in Him, we can be winners too.

Jesus is our Ace card, now that is worth shouting about!

 

God bless

Eileen

 

 

08.23