A word about,…. cards.

Her name is Lynette. I know that because she signed the card that she left the other day. Her effort has left a profound impact on my life. It wasn’t fancy, it was a piece of yellow construction paper about four by six inches. Simple might be too big a word for it, in fact. In the top corner, a small sticker of a cross. At the bottom, an old-fashioned suitcase sticker, covered in travel emblems. I found the card on the side table in my son’s room. He’s recovering from a stroke in a skilled nursing facility here in our town. Every time I walk that hallway, I’m struck by the caring nurses and staff who move from room to room tending to people who often can’t even thank them. Most of the patients there are elderly. Dementia or stroke has taken their ability to communicate. My wife and I visit our son every day for at least an hour, and he has friends who stop by too. But an aide told me something that stuck with me. Many of the residents there have been there for a long time and they rarely get visitors. So Lynette has taken it upon herself to hand design and deliver a simple card every week to every patient, whether they get visitors or not. Here’s what I read on the card that she left for my son. Cheers to this special person. You are loved and you are thought of. Signed Lynette, with a hand-drawn heart next to her knave. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus described how kingdom rewards would be given out. For I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, you invited me into your home. I was sick and you cared for me. I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. Every week Lynette walks into rooms where loneliness often sits in the chair beside a person who may not even be able to say how lonely they really are. Without a word, she delivers her cards, and in her own simple way, she says, You’re not invisible to God, you are loved by God, and you are thought of by me. In heaven’s economy, a handmade card delivered to a forgotten patient is not insignificant. It is love with fingerprints on it. It is mercy with a signature. It’s a small square of construction paper quietly announcing that Jesus with skin on has made a visit. Her cards may not look like much, sitting there on those side tables, all those rooms. But in the Kingdom of God economy, a small card like Lynette’s is not a small thing. Small things are only small when they’re measured with the wrong ruler.