Recovered. Restored. Repurposed.

I remember my excitement as a child, when after Thanksgiving, Mom would go to the store room and bring out our 1960s aluminum Christmas tree. My folks got the tree from a Holiday or Erickson store on A Ave West with green stamps. The value was $25.   We kids could help pull the silver tinsel branches out of the paper sleeves they were stored in.

This summer Mark's family was cleaning up an abandoned farm building site. The only value left on the property were memories. One Sunday on a Ranger ride, Jan and I went to check on cleanup progress. The roof of the house had rotted. There were canning jars, a 1971 calendar on the kitchen wall, and metal or wooden skeletons of furniture. Upstairs was a rodent filled bedroom with material that showed the wife must have been a quilter. And a store room filled with racoon manure and strewn boxes. I noticed a silver tinsel branch. Then another. I started digging. And found most of the parts to the aluminum Christmas tree in the above picture with Brynn and Lane.

According to the kitchen wall calendar, this Christmas tree lay idle and unused for over 50 years. It was recovered, reconditioned, and repurposed. And with the help of grandkids is up in my home office, for me to reflect, remember, and retell the story.

Below Elijah and Ezra are cleaning nests and dead birds from our wood stove chimney.

Although we're all still busy, Thanksgiving week was the first week we weren't all in the fields. Kurt is fixing a motorcycle tire that Lane had been patiently waiting on. Thanks for the picture Emily.

We hauled hog manure all week and have about a day left. Thanks Papa Jon, Ryan, Matt, Karl, and others.

We removed shields and blew off the combines with Dean's big portable air compressor on tires. And then power washed them. Thanks Kurt and others. Pablo has to clean the cabs yet. Then they get inspected and a list made for repairs.

Although we received an inch of snow last night, southern Iowa is still in critical need of moisture. This drought map must be fairly accurate. As Mike goes north with dozing jobs he notices the ground pushes a touch easier.

After a service at church our extended family (around 65 of us) had Thanksgiving dinner together. We are still a growing family and have a lot to be thankful for.

A thanksgiving tradition around here is shooting clay pigeons after lunch. Many of our crew are on competitive shooting teams.

Three years ago on the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving I found my Dad had gone to Heaven when I went to have breakfast with him. Three of the many things I'm thankful for about my father and mother. They taught us about the Hope we have in accepting Christ's gift of salvation. Affirming me by giving me all the responsibility I could handle and then some on the farm as a kid. And showing me to help and care about others. Our culture is trying to downplay "real men" these days.

Many churches are losing members and closing these days. The church we belong to is called Reformed. The definition of reformed means to change. Does your church have relevant and practical worship today, especially for the younger generation, or are you still living in the 1970s? Is the Holy Spirit evident and working, or are there too many traditions? Is your church recovering, reintroducing, and repurposing lost folks to Christ's gift and giving them hope? Taking care of those already saved is only half the job.

We went to Amazon and ordered a revolving colored light, just like the old days as a kid. Jan bought some decorative bulbs. The reflective different colors shine out the corner windows, showing the outside it's Christmas time.

Christ came to earth as a baby in a manger. 33 years later He died on a cross to pay for our wrongs if we accept His gift of salvation. He went to Heaven. He's coming back. Our culture says soon. This is half the story we talk about every Christmas. The other half of the story is we need to relevantly and practically reflect His story to others. Just like that recovered, restored, and repurposed little aluminum Christmas tree. That happens through friendships and relationships. Thanks for stopping by.