Today's bulletin may seem to bounce around a little!

When I was a wee lad, I had an uncle who bet me he could tie a turkey leg into a knot. Now all of us know that a drumstick of a turkey is good for eating, but good for science? Why yes! After our feast, usually we save the wishbone to dry out and see who gets their wish, but those monster leg bones? Tie them in a knot? To me, that was simply not possible.

So I challenge you mothers and fathers out there. This upcoming turkey day, unless you are a ham eater, save them big of leg bones after dinner. In fact uncooked bones work the best. Clean them all off. Ask your kids if they think they would ever bend enough, without breaking, to be tied into a knot. Let them handle one of them (in case they break it) and imagine it. It will seem very, very unlikely. Downright impossible.

Now take the other bone and stick it in a jar of VINEGAR, enough to submerge it. Come on, its cheap stuff and you know it's the best use of vinegar you will ever think of, except for putting on spinach or launching rockets. I suggest a big jar, so you can put a lid on (gets a little smelly) and let it sit around for a week. Every so often, shake it just a little bit. Sunlight might help. Strong vinegar sure does!

After a few days, replace the vinegar with fresh. At the end of the week, take it out and rinse it off. Ask your kids if they think it might be able to be tied into a knot now. Huh! How about that. Wanna know what happened?

Well, let's see. That bone started out HARD. Well sorta, when it was first made in the turkey it was probably a little soft. But then by growth and by use it got hard. When we say a man is hard, it often means he's tough or unmerciful. Unbending. He started out soft as a kid, but life worked him over. That is what sin can do to us, it can fill us up and consume us and make us feel like we'll never feel pity, mercy, love, or anything good again. Sin makes it seem like, for us to be able to bend to the will of God, it is simply impossible. We would break long before we'd ever even start to truly bend. What's a guy to do?

Why, remove the sin of course. Inside of us, inside of everyone, there is good. Really there is. God made all of us that way. The trick is to get the sin out, and for some people that takes a lot of patience, a lot of scripture, and a little bit of getting shaken up. If we can overcome all that sin, why even the impossible is possible with God! And a man who you thought would never, ever bend to the will of God is able to bounce back and spring to the occasion. Good is in there!

Likewise, soaking in vinegar doesn't change the essence of the bone - other than dissolving the calcium away. You know how your mom made you drink milk (bleah) so you'd have strong bones and teeth? Yeah, that's the stuff. Once you take the calcium away, the part that's left is allowed to flex. This is what happens to old people, they lose calcium in their bones. Maybe that's why people are often more Godly as they get older (or maybe they are just full of vinegar!)

(psst! Hardboiled eggs are cool to soak, too! I mean while you have the vinegar out anyway...) Randy