If you have shares in Hallmark Cards, then maybe this quarter is going to make it a good year for you.

Since Annie’s diagnosis and prognosis, we’ve received an unbelievable amount of cards; although if you enter our home, you might challenge me on that: “Where are they?”.

Well, we now operate a greeting card filing system in favour of the more traditional card placement! Very quickly we ran out of surface space as the non-stop sentimental cards began competing with the numerous scented candles we have around the house. And there’s the second reason for filing them away; the lit-candle-to-card proximity factor probably invalidates our building and contents insurance policy!

In our possession is a vast collection of card types. We have everything from the lovingly hand-crafted button-and-ribbon adorned home-made types (Annie’s favourite) to those as-clever-as-they-are-technical typographic pieces that would not look out of place on a wall in the Tate Modern (my particular penchant).

I looked on the internet to see if there is a word for the study of greetings cards but it seems not even Google takes those people seriously enough to give them space on its servers! I suggested ‘Cardology’ but the closest match was ‘Cardiology: one given to the study of matters and disorders of the heart’. Not the word I was looking for but not a million miles apart!

Sending a card to someone is one way of expressing our hearts to them. Through pictures, through the inspirational verses and poems on the inside and the accompaniment of our own words we aim to achieve the goal of saying “You are dear to me.”

The greatest blessing by far that we have received along with all those cards has been the many different verses of scripture that have been laid on the hearts of our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus through His Holy Spirit. To open a card and listen to God share His heart for us through just one sentence in His Word, achieves more than all the inspirational thoughts that Hallmark’s philosophers and poets have ever dreamed up.

‘I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.’ – Psalm 130:5

The Word of God is filled with promises. Promises to give us a supernatural strength, peace and joy in difficult times. How do we know that the bible is the Word of the one and only true God and creator of the universe? Because each day He is faithfully delivering His supernatural promises in our lives and through our afflictions.

It’s one of the same reasons that we know Jesus is alive. When He walked on this earth He stood and spoke in the middle of storms and brought peace (Mark 4:35-40). And right now, as we experience the storm of cancer, He is with us and giving us so much peace that we are able to smile during this storm.

God is the divine cardiologist. The bible is His combined diagnosis, prognosis, remedy and love-letter to us and when we open it we consistently hear Him say: “You are precious to me!” 

We hope that as you read more posts in this blog, you will witness the living and loving God in action.