I Thought They Were Just Hockey Cards

I was editing my new book when something prompted me to research the names I thought I had chosen at random. The main character is a fellow named Jackson Davis. I was intrigued to learn that Jackson means “God is gracious” and Davis means “Beloved.” His love interest is a woman named Maria, and my intrigue only heightened when I saw that her name also meant “Beloved.”

One by one, I typed the names into the search engine, and one after another, they came back with a link to Spirit, most often translated as “God is gracious and Beloved.”

Weird. I’m more sinner than saint and will probably be standing in line for a while at the pearly gates answering questions—if there is such a thing as heaven. Hardly the best choice for a messenger, if that’s what’s happening. I needed a minute, so I went to meditate. That’s when I noticed I had left out a box of hockey cards from the day before. I felt compelled to pull a card from the box. It was a checklist—and to my surprise, it held all the main character names on it. Still doubtful, I pulled a second card. It was an insert that listed most of the names of the secondary characters.

Not convinced, I challenged the universe to prove something strange was happening and pulled a third card. The names on the card had no connection, but I freaked out when I flipped it over and saw the player’s birthdate: September 2nd—the same date three of the characters in my book die.

Okay, that was enough for me… but there’s more.

A week later, I was flipping through a binder of hockey cards, still half-looking for signs from the universe. Nothing—until the last page. On the top right was a player I’d watched a lot in the ’90s. I flipped the card over to check his stats, already giving up on my little universe-sign hunt. You already know his birthday. That prompted me to search the rest of the binder for more birthdays, and sure enough, I found another player with a September 2nd birthday. Want to guess his name?

Yup. Jackson. And the card number? 33—the same number the character in my book wore on his baseball jersey.