Pick a Card

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I had a birthday a few weeks back, one of those big ones that people often make a big deal about, but I chose not to. I’m not in denial about getting older; I really just didn’t want the attention.

For the record, LeAnn’s birthday is the same week as mine, although a few years apart, and we always celebrate together. That’s how we ended up sharing our lives; we had a quiet birthday dinner together. One of our small celebrations this year was dinner with my parents at a steakhouse. It was all well and good and we almost got out of there without any hoopla, but a man came to our table and we were trapped.

Some restaurants have troubadours, mariachis, photographers and the like, and one of these days I’m going to do what I’ve always wanted to do and hand them a ten-dollar bill and suggest they go take a break. But this place has a magician — a sleight of hand artist or prestidigitator to be exact – and before I could work up a deep, irritated sigh, he was wielding a deck of cards and asking me to name one. So, I did, and in a flash my card jumped to the top of the deck. And then he pulled out a red marker and had me initial the card and then stuff it back into the deck where it quickly disappeared.

Then came more card tricks and clever banter and foam bunnies that multiplied in our closed hands. And just when we thought it was over, he wondered aloud about my card and then dug into his coat pocket, pulled out a small zippered wallet, opened it and of course there it was – the folded card with my initials just as I wrote them. I’ll admit: he was really good, not just in the way he could do magic at close range and right in front of our eyes, but in the way he made my irritation disappear.

The truth, of course, is that there was no real magic at the table but instead some carefully practiced and expertly choreographed movement, misdirection and distraction that had us focusing on one thing while the magician was doing another. And, of course, on a birthday night it’s a pretty good analogy for life and how things happen right in front of us and we don’t even realize it because we’re distracted by the flurry of events that keep our head spinning and looking elsewhere. We think we have everything figured out and we know where life is going because we’ve marked our card and made our plans. But we get distracted and forget the card or we lose it or give it away, and then one day it pops up, folded and worn.

Getting older doesn’t bother me, but I wish I could bring back what I can’t bring back as easily as that magician brought back that card: friends, loved ones, favorite pets, best days, the list goes on and on. And I wish I could go back and choose other cards: the risk avoided, the opportunity not pursued, the decision not taken seriously, the words not said. Some small and insignificant; some large and life changing. 

Instead, I’m stuck with the hand I’ve been dealt, or more correctly, the card that I chose. Because while God may be the dealer in this analogy, we make our own choices. At the table, I chose the king of hearts, and don’t you know the magician knows that most of us choose the king or queen of hearts and he has a pile of those cards stashed away to replenish his deck. I wish now that I had chosen something less predictable such as the seven of clubs because maybe that would have been more interesting.

And don’t you know that God has a pretty good idea of what card we’re going to choose for ourselves and is standing ready at the table to hold it for us and play it back when we’re ready for it, folded and worn as it may be. 

But God is no magician, and neither are we. Singer/songwriter Chris Rice has a song, “Magic Wand,” that captures some of this:

I would wave my magic wand
I would say the magic words
Working up a miracle
Puttin’ on a show
Changing what I thought to be
Unchangeable reality
If I had a magic wand of my own
The only way to really change
Is simple choices everyday
Obey the Spirit-whisper in my soul
With the help of God, a little time
Can change a heart, renew a mind
Without a magic wand He’ll work a miracle