Funny how the top card can also be the bottom one. I’m not sure I can think of another game besides poker where this is true. Whoever invented the game gave to the ace special powers to both be at the head of the pack, and yet, if needed, to sit beneath the humble two to make a lowly straight. Such a striking card, and with such a striking flexibility, to so overwhelm or to condescend to form a winning hand.

Yet I can think of another place where the same power can be seen – where the ace becomes the lowliest member of the deck, in order to win the day. Except it’s not a game. John in the Book records it this way: The Word, who was God, became flesh and dwelt among us. And St Paul puts it this way: He who was in very nature God, humbled himself and made himself nothing.

Ah, but now I remember another card game: ‘Twenty-One’, where the ace can operate as both an eleven (to be combined with a picture card), or as a one (when trying to combine with four other lowly cards). I wonder why the inventors of games chose to give the ace such unique powers. Or is it simply because the great Story can’t help but break through again and again and everywhere, with hints and echoes and similitudes and types? As the Book puts it: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.