Cards of Decoration

Cards of Decoration

I am a card person! I love cards! I have cards from many years stashed away in musty, bundled piles. I have discoloured, ageing cards from my wedding day, from baby births, from dearest loved ones of long ago. I have hand made cards, created with loving thought and received by me with wonder. Collections of cards filled with romantic love and shared tender moments between my husband and I, are affectionately treasured. I have cards that the chubby hands of childhood made so sweetly and carefully, with hearts full of love for their Mother. I have farewell cards tearfully signed and cards of friendship from hearts brimming with care, cards of thankfulness, pouring out words of appreciation and cards of encouragement, during those moments when life fell apart. I love cards.

As I joyfully receive a card, I place it fondly on a book shelf in our lounge room to enjoy, to be able to stop and read at times. Cards decorate our home with the thoughtful words of loved ones. My best friend lives far away in the USA. Her cards are precious and treasured, a reminder of the happy times we have spent together. Her cards express her heart in friendship and I have strung them up across a wall in my bedroom as bunting, complete with pink bows and pretty butterflies. It is a charming decoration.

The Christmas of 2001 was a very special Christmas for me. That year my husband and I received very carefully chosen Christmas cards. Our precious daughters, then aged, 12, 10 and 8 years, had spent the year delivering a weekly newspaper to the local neighbourhood. The girls traipsed willingly, most of the time, around the quiet streets nearby, each thursday morning, with back packs full of folded newspapers, placing one in every letter box. It was a huge job which entailed the help of Mum and Dad as the bundles of newspapers and colourful advertising brochures were picked up each week at 5am from a delivery site, brought home and sorted into piles. Each newspaper was inserted with a variety of leaflets, folded neatly and held together with a rubber band. Finally after hours of methodically working, they were ready to deliver. Out we would head in rain or shine ,cold or heat to bring the local paper to everyone before the day was out. This enabled our girls to enjoy earning some money while gaining the skills of budgeting wisely and of returning to God a faithful tithe. This Christmas our daughters had squirrelled away their hard earned money, saving it to buy my husband and I very special Christmas presents, and the cards. 

Clutching their purses with their money, our daughters asked to be taken to the the local country town’s very small shopping centre. The three of them took themselves off on a shopping spree, carefully calculating their combined savings to excitedly make their purchases. My husband hung lazily around the lounge area at the shops waiting for their return. When they arrived home, the car was full of laughter and chatter, secrets and concealed purchased. Soon the gifts and cards were ensconced out of sight, giggles remained and love wrapped our home in a blanket of contentment.

That Christmas, amidst a flurry of brightly coloured wrapping paper spread across the lounge room floor, the excitement of the presents the girls gave us filled the house. We opened our gifts from the beautiful ,delicate pink bath mats to the sturdy garden pruners  to the added delights of rose scented toiletries and other thoughtfully purchased gifts. Then there was the wonder of the cards that showed their fervent love for us, their parents. Now each year those cards come out as decorations, to adorn our house with Christmas cheer and to bring a smile to my face as I remember that Christmas of 2001.

The yellowed cards of long ago, stored carefully away, the  beautiful bunting of cards gracefully adorning my bedroom wall, the cards that decorate only at Christmas time and the loving cards that sit on our lounge room book shelf remind me of the greatest card of all, the Bible. God sent me words of deepest love, of tender friendship,  encouragement and hope, thoughtfully placed in card after card and all contained with in the Bible. With joyful anticipation He longs for me to read His words.Do I read it daily or is my Bible like some of my ageing cards, just stored away to be pulled out occasionally, for Sabbaths only?  Is my Bible like the beauty of the many cards draped across my wall, as an adornment in my bedroom, just sitting quietly on my bedside table?  Can a family Bible be found in the centre of my home like the cards upon a  book shelf, thought about frequently, but only opened spasmodically to be read? God wants me to open His Word each day and with wonder and delight, discover the card He has for me. He wants me to smile at His love, to wipe away tears as His heart calls to mine, to be encouraged, empowered, uplifted and filled with His Spirit. 

Ps 119:18  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.

Rom 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope

Josh 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.