A PERSPECTIVE ABOUT OLD BARNS

Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and
scorching sun, only that can produce beautiful barn wood.

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 weather 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  there be peace within you  today.
May  you trust God that you  are
exactly  where you are meant to  be.

And...I  do sincerely thank God for my wonderful friends  and family  
who  love me even though I show signs of  weathering.  :  )