The old FJ ute still sits in the paddock where it decided long ago it was tired of being misused and would go into voluntary retirement.
The family of 5 kids had learnt to drive in it and many stories of adventurous youthful exploits around the farm are still told when the family all come together.
The old FJ still maintains a special place in their memory. Its operational life may well be over and what is left of the genuine leather on the seats, dry and torn. However, every dent has a memory and every scratch a story.
It is their nostalgic monument to the happy days of their childhood and they will not let their father move it, so he just ploughs around it. Who knows what creatures have completed their life cycle amid its rusting steel carcass.
Just like the sight of the old FJ brings memories flooding back for the family, so the cross outside a church allows Christians to remember the man who died for everyone on the hill of Calvary.
The old FJ will eventually rust away, but the cross will always be a part of our life.
I’m Peter Mack and that’s faith.