THE WEATHERED OLD BARN
Author Unknown
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.
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.
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