From the Home Place

December 31, 2025

Well, here it is, the last day of 2025. Back in the 1960’s I never gave a thought of living in a year starting with 20. Oh yea, and then there was Y2K, life as we knew it was going to end because all of the computers were going to malfunction. For those of us who remembered life before computers, we thought that Y2K might let life go back to “the way it used to be.” Which in my opinion, would have been probably a better option. But that didn’t happen.

Twenty-five years later, if someone was to take all of the electronics from our culture, life WOULD end as we know it. I wonder how many people wouldn’t be able to communicate because they couldn’t text, Snap Chat, TikTok or whatever today’s new fad is.

Come to think of it, without a computer, I wouldn’t be communicating today on this blog. My, the world we have created, or perhaps have allowed to be created around us. I’m my tiny brain, it seems to me that there are two categories of sin, the sins I do and the sins that are done against me. It sure enough could be that this electronic age falls into both categories.

Over my 70+ years I have seen a fair amount of change: We have gone from just looking at the moon, to a man walking on the moon. We have gone from cheap automobiles that needed fossil fuel to run, to extremely expensive automobiles that run on electricity. From everyone understanding that every person was either male or female, to there supposedly being a plethora of genders. We have gone from large regions of the country not having telephones, to everyone, even little children, having a cell phone, and a world that is totally addicted to the electronic grid.

And as I was once again reminded of last night, we have gone from every rancher carrying a raggy old grass rope on his saddle or in his pickup, to all of us having three or four nylon ropes behind the seat of our pickup, or in the back window of said vehicle.

I often chuckle when I see a rope displayed in the back window of a pickup, along with a cowboy hat sitting on the dash. It sure enough makes a feller look like he is a cowboy, but it doesn’t say much about him having a ranch-life background.

You see, a nylon rope exposed to constant sunshine through a window is most like to fail a feller when he has to rope something with it. Sun eats at the fibers of nylon. Along with that, a western hat setting down on the dash of a pickup will suffer the same effects from the sun. Besides that, if such a hat sits face down on a dash for very long, the brim begins to turn upward, making it look like a Red Skeleton hat. If a ranch hand needs to take his hat off to get into his pickup, he will lay it on the top of its crown on the console or on the back seat.

Speaking of back seats in pickups, that is another serious change I’ve witnessed over my life span. I remember when all pickups had one seat in them, never two. But I must admit, I sure enough enjoy my two-seater pickup.

When the two-seater was just getting popular, a car dealer friend was telling me about one of our ‘ol neighbors who had bought a brand-new two-seater Ford pickup. The ‘ol feller had the pickup for about ten days and came in demanding his old pickup back. When asked why, the rancher stated, “Every time I get out to close a gate, some jerk steals my steering wheel.” (Think on it for a minute, it was plumb funny.)

While I’m ranting about changes I’ve seen, when I first became a Christ-follower many years ago, everyone, even the kids, carried their Bible to church. Today it’s a rare occurrence. If we want unbelievers to believe that the Bible is the absolute word of God, and that it’s the most important book we’ve ever owned, perhaps they ought to see us with one in our hand on Sunday morning.

I know, I’m just a silly old man, sticking his nose into categories best left alone. But you see, that’s part of the joy of becoming an old man, we get to say what we are thinking instead of worrying about being “politically correct.” Another change that I’m not too high on either.

Well, anyway, today is the last day of another year. I hope 2025 treated you and yours well. I pray the same for you during the year before us. A year that will bring plenty of more changes to our world, and the cultures in which each of us live. I have no idea what 2026 holds, but I am completely confident in the One who holds 2026. You see my friends, as long a God is on His throne, it’s all going to work out according to His plan to get us to the end of this world and the beginning of eternity. When we get to heaven, I don’t reckon we will be bothered none about all of the changes we saw while on this ‘ol ball of dirt.

As a feller by the name of Job one said, “For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are as a shadow.” Enjoy the year before you, ’cause the years sure pile up quickly and then you will be a grumpy old person talking about how it “used to be!”

Looking upward with you, Neal