From the Home Place

November 13, 2025

3:30 a.m. and 28 degrees, headed for 70 today! Well, according to my weather app, today and tomorrow are both right at that 70 mark, and then two days in the 60’s, and then it hits. Sunday is forecast to be the last day of a temperature above 60 until next spring. After this Sunday, 30’s and 40’s will be our high temperatures. Here comes ‘Ol Man Winter!

As if these long evenings weren’t bad enough, now they will be long-cold evenings. And I can’t say for you, but I don’t plan of sitting in front of a television for hours and hours. All of my younger years, winter was the time of year for company and cards.

Everyone would work hard keeping critters fed and chores done, but then after supper, we would gather to play cards. It seemed to me that most of the gathering was done at our house. Often, around 6 p.m., there would be headlights coming up the road toward our house. Pinocle was the game of choice back then.

Though I liked the game, I seldom got to enjoy it. Quite often one of the single ranch hands would show up at our house, as such, I had to be his card partner. I reckon by the time I was in third grade, I could play a fair hand of Pinocle, but I was by no means the expert that most of these ‘ol boys were.

As we played, they would grumble and gripe at me for playing the wrong card at the wrong time. I always marveled at how most of those ranch hands knew exactly what cards everyone at the table was holding, and that included my hand. If I would mistakenly play the wrong card, boy would I hear about it. Sometimes my dad would have to remind a grumpy neighbor that I was just a kid. But you know what, in time I considered every one of those men a good friend.

So by the time Miss Deb and I started dating, her right-of-passage into our community was that she had to be able to dance a nice two-step and she had to know how to play Pinocle. She picked both up right quickly, especially the dancing. By the time we were married and living on the home place, the community card game had switched to Canasta; it could be play with less tension and more laughter.

Today, I couldn’t tell you how to play either game. Why, because very few people get together to play cards anymore, we just sit in front of the television, watching mostly junk, until it’s time to go to bed. Man, you talk about wasting time! And what’s even worse, our circle of friends gets smaller and smaller.

You see, when I was a kid, playing cards and dancing were the only entertainment we had, and during both there was always plenty of visiting that took place. During such visiting, we became well acquainted with our neighbors, who for the most part, became really good friends. Now, we spend way more time with fake friends on television, rather than making real friends with our neighbors.

The same can be said for our friendship with the people in the Bible, the more time we spend with them, the better we get to know them, and the better friends they become. Yep, I’m saying that we need to spend more time with the people of the Bible, not just the lessons of the Bible.

You see, many folks find the Bible “boring.” Could it be because we don’t spend enough time getting to really know the people of the Bible. We treat them as a quick acquaintance rather than life-long friends. The Bible characters were real people who lived real lives, get to know them.

When you read a narrative with characters in it, put yourself right there with them. See what they see, smell what they smell, join them in their life-journey, be their neighbor. It’s funny how strangers become friends when we walk with each other along the path of life.

Walk with Abraham as he and Issac go to make an offering. Listen to Jesus as He teaches His disciples, of which you are one. Be there when Jesus is born, feel the warmth of that little barn in Bethlehem. Ask Mary if you could hold the Christ Child in your arms, before He began holding you in His arms.

Don’t just play the game of reading the Bible, step into the pages of the Bible. Live when and where those folks lived. Be one of them and then you will marvel how the Bible comes alive in your life! Invite a Bible character to go through a day of life with you. Get to know them. Live where they lived, so they can live where you live.

So, this long-cold winter, let’s get together, play some cards and get to know each other. The best way to do that is to invite and visit. But be careful, you just might become good friends with someone! Also, remember to get into your Bible and get to know the folks who live there as well!

Getting to know people with you, Neal