Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, February 6, 2026
A few days back my wife Shelley told me that she’d been examining greeting cards in a store, not finding any which suited her purpose at the moment. A nearby woman, who was feeling the same frustration, finally said, “I’m going over to Ace. They have a good supply.”
Shelley, and later I, were startled to learn that our local hardware store stocked this kind of item. And this Thursday, when I told her that I was going over to Ace Hardware to buy some replacement furnace filters, she asked if I could take a photo of the greeting card display.
This is what you see, above. Actually, for Shelley’s greater convenience, I snapped this photo and then swiveled the racks and took another one, and sent them both to her.
I’ll confess that I did a bit of eyebrow-raising during that store visit. I have never once entered a hardware store with Valentine’s Day on my mind. I’m there solely for furnace filters (and in Thursday’s case a roll of electrician’s tape), or duplicate house keys or that kind of thing. These display “spinners” are located right next to the paint section (notice the “Benj” of “Benjamin Moore” peeking out from behind the sale poster?).
Home repair is often why I go to Ace. But a focus group somewhere decided that what might minister to heart repair might dislodge a few additional shekels from the male pocketbook. Or from purses of the females, once word spreads about the colorful spinners.
And of course the Designer of human hearts is supremely interested in both heart and home repair. Want to read seven Bible verses about this? Click the link below.