Ran across a two deck box of my mother’s bird pattern playing cards today. I love them. The grandchildren and I often play cards. I gave my granddaughter Handley a two deck box of Mama’s bridge cards in a roses pattern. Those are our Go Fishing playing cards. One deck is trimmed in gold, the other deck trimmed in silver. Handley always says I win more when we play with the silver rimmed deck. Last visit I won the Go Fishing tournament with 17 pair. That’s a new record for me.

I did a little research and found some facts about a deck of cards I never knew. The 52 cards symbolize the 52 weeks in a year. The four suits represent the four seasons or the elements — Water for Hearts, Earth for Diamonds, Fire for Clubs, Air for Spades. These suits also represent the four classes of Medieval society — clergy, merchants, peasants, and nobility, respectively. There are 13 cards per suit as there are 13 weeks in each season and 13 lunar cycles a year. The 12 face cards of the King, Queen, and Jack represent the 12 months in a year. And the card faces in black and red colors signify day and night. I had no idea but maybe y’all did. Gonna share these facts with my grandchildren.

I love the episode of Gunsmoke where Kitty cheats at poker. She risks the town’s money and Matt’s life in a poker game with the Dan Whelan gang who came to Dodge to kill Matt. Matt is out of town during the poker game. Kitty plays her poker hand to save Matt’s life and wins. When Matt returns to Dodge he teases Kitty about her gambling skills as he reaches up and pulls a Queen with a bent edge from Kitty’s vest. She just smiles and says she’ll explain it all later. I love the way he looked at her and smiled. I always wanted Matt “to hang his hat at Kitty’s place.”

I think of a deck of cards as a symbol of life. We can’t control the cards were given, we can only control how we play them. Jawaharlal Nehru captures this thought perfectly in his words, “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.” All of us are born into a life that is predetermined. God knows the path we need to travel, but he gives us free will with our lives’ deck of cards. We can be happy and work with the cards we draw or we can be miserable always searching for that card that wasn’t dealt to us. We are all given unique abilities and skills, gifts from God that with nurturing can enrich our lives and the lives of others.

I think one of the hardest things in life is just to accept how the cards were dealt. “Just when you think you’re playing your cards right, God shuffles the deck,” Mark Shepherd. Complaining about things we can’t change just wastes our time, our energy, and makes us miserable and depressed. We need to pray for the strength to accept the things we can’t change, turning those worries over to God. We need to pray for courage to deal with things we can change and pray for God’s grace as we work toward those challenges. How we deal with life’s troubles makes all the difference. “Life is not a matter of holding good cards but sometimes, playing a poor hand well,” Jack London. I learned years ago, if you can’t control it or change it give it to God and let him carry it. He will bring peace.

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game,” Voltaire. Our lives are what we make them. We are responsible for our own happiness. Turning your life and the hand you’re dealt over to God is the best way to win the card game of life. Let’s be joyful and courageous knowing God will bring us peace in the trials of life’s game of cards.

“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.” — Josh Billings