| 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.
Author Unknown
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