Old Barns And Old People

A stranger came by one day with an offer that set me to thinking. He wanted to buy the old barn which had stood on my property for years out by the highway. I told him right off that he must be crazy. He was a city type--- by his clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked.

He said he was driving by and saw the "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 hey day. But then, there'd been a lot of winters with the snow and ice and howling winds. The summer sun had beat down on that old barn 'til all the paint had gone, and the wood had turned silver gray. Also, now the old building leaned a good deal, looking kind of tired. Yet, the fellow called it "beautiful".

But after the fellow left, what he said set me to thinking. I walked out to the field and just stood there gazing at the old barn.

He said, "You couldn't get paint that beautiful. Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms, the wind, the rain, and the scorching sun can produce beautifully weathered barn wood."

The stranger also said that he planned to use the lumber to line the walls of the den in a new country home he was building down the road.

Then the thought finally came to me. We're all a lot like that old barn---you and I. Only it's on the inside that our true beauty grows with us and shows. Sure we turn silver gray 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 weather of our lives, the dry spells and the stormy seasons to do a job of beautifying our souls in a such a way which nothing else can produce. And to think how often folks complain and fret because they want life easy!

Then finally, the old barn was taken down and hauled away to beautify a rich man's house. I reckon someday you and I will also be hauled off to heaven to take on whatever new purpose the good Lord has for us on the Great-Ranch-In-The-Sky.

And I suspect we'll be more beautiful then for the seasons we've been through in this present world, and just maybe even add a bit of beauty to our Father's house.

May there be peace within you today, and may you trust God and finally fully realize that you are exactly where God meant for you to be.

Finally, I sincerely thank God for you as well as my wonderful family and other friends who care about me even though I show signs of weathering!

Author Unknown