It's all in the card!

What’s in your wallet? No, I’m not a Capital One Commercial. It’s this nagging bulge on my backside. It’s amazing what you can learn when you open your wallet. I’m being held captive in a prison of plastic. I’m not talking credit cards. I’m referring to the other cards that seem to be multiplying and having Credit Card Kids in my billfold.

Here’s just a sample of what I dug out the other day.

AAA Card
Safeway club card
Starbucks gift card
Greenhouse Café punch card (one full and one half full)
Promise Keepers membership card
Promise Keepers card (last year)
Promise Keepers card (2 years ago)
ATT phone card (Have no clue how many minutes are on the thing)
AARP (Oops! How did that get there?)
Cutting Edge card (Local gym. They know me so they don’t ask for it)
Hollywood video (They don’t ask for it either)
Regal Crown Club Card (You attend 50 movies and get a free kernel of popcorn.)
Powells Book Store gift card (No idea of amount)
Barnes and Nobel book store membership card (at think it earns bonus points)
Cosco Card (Enter and spend)
Scooters Coffee (I forget where that is. It’s near Albany I think.)
McDonalds gift card (I know where that is)

We use these crazy cards all the time. Gift cards are redeemed for gifts (Plus they’re easier to wrap and easier to find the right size). I can redeem my coffee card and a get a free latte. The card provides some sort of benefit or privilege.

What we do in our daily life with these cards is a concept fresh out of the New Testament. We REEDEM a card, to get a gift. What we do in stores with plastic cards, Christ did for us with a wooden cross. He redeemed us. We’re called to do that for others as well.

Consider that great line in the Lord’s prayer “Forgive us our debts, as we forget our debtors. (Matthew 6:12). We forgive, or redeem people. So the next time you pry a store card, or gift card from your wallet or purse, think

Christ
Always
Redeems
Debtors

The card in your hand of course does not measure up to Christ on the cross. But we can have a plastic prompter to remind us of the redemption of the Lord. When you trade in a gift card, remember Christ’s gift of salvation on the cross. When you show a card to get a discount, or a service, remember to cut some slack to someone who has wronged you. When you show a membership card, remember that in Christ we are members of Christ’s church and He loves us.

It’s all in the cards!