below
is a must read and a nice
tune for us who now are
resembling old barns
THE
WEATHERED OLD BARN
A
stranger came by the
other day with an offer
that set me to thinking.
He wanted to buy the old
barn that sits out by the
highway. I told him right
off he was crazy. He was
a city type, you could
tell by his clothes, his
car, his hands, and the
way he talked. He said he
was driving by and saw
that beautiful barn
sitting out in the tall
grass and wanted to know
if it was for sale. I
told him he had a funny
idea of beauty.
Sure, it was a handsome
building in its day. But
then, there's been a lot
of winters pass with
their snow and ice and
howling wind. The summer
sun's beat down on that
old barn till all the
paint's gone, and the
wood has turned silver
gray. Now the old
building leans a good
deal, looking kind of
tired. Yet, that fellow
called it beautiful.
That set me to thinking.
I walked out to the field
and just stood there,
gazing at that old barn.
The stranger said he
planned to use the lumber
to line the walls of his
den in a new country home
he's building down the
road. He said you
couldn't get paint that
beautiful. Only years of
standing in the weather,
bearing the storms and
scorching sun, only that can
produce beautiful barn
wood.
It came to me then. We're
a lot like that, you and
I. Only it's on the
inside that the beauty
grows with us. Sure we
turn silver gray too .
and lean a bit more than
we did when we were young
and full of sap. But the
Good Lord knows what He's
doing. And as the years
pass He's busy using the
hard wealth of our lives,
the dry spells and the
stormy seasons,
to do a job of
beautifying our souls
that nothing else can
produce. And to think how
often folks holler
because they want life
easy!
They took the old barn
down today and hauled it
away to beautify a rich
man's house. And I reckon
someday you and I'll be
hauled off to Heaven to
take on whatever chores
the Good Lord has for us
on the Great Sky Ranch.
And I suspect we'll be
more beautiful then for
the seasons we've been
through here ... and just
maybe even add a bit of
beauty to our Father's
house.
May today there be peace
within you.
May you trust God that you
are exactly where you are
meant to be.
"I believe that
friends are quiet angels
who lift us to our feet
when our wings have
trouble remembering how
to fly.
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