Last year for my 81st birthday, my son, Paul, gave me an extra special birthday gift — my Ford 901 tractor restored like new. After I noticed it was missing from the machine shed, he gave me a flimsy excuse about taking it to get new tire on it. He didn’t lie; he got new tires and then some.

When I was 20 years old, I saw the 901, all shiny new. For the sum of $2,000 she could be all mine — and it was. It was the first tractor my six kids learned to drive. Over the 60 years, it suffered accidents, dents and scratches.

How better than new?
When I bought that tractor, I had no idea that in 1971 one of my sons — now a pastor — would give his heart to Jesus sitting on that tractor seat. The tractor was there for it all — marriage to the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, the share-cropping, growing to five farms and a 300-cow herd, drought years and plentiful years.

It’s better than new in my mind because of all the memories it has been part of. I’ll be 82 in November. I have got dents and dings and could probably use a good overhaul.

God, too, has been there all these years. The best news is that He promises to restore you and me to better versions of ourselves if we know Jesus as the risen Savior. 1 John 3:2 says: "When Christ appears, we shall be like him…" Now that’s better than new!

James C. Witter
Shippensburg, Pa.

Witter is part of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Farmers International. For more about FCFI, visit fcfi.org.