SOMETHING ABOUT OLD BARNS
Author unknown
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.
And...
I do sincerely Thank God for my wonderful friends and family
who love me even though I show signs of weathering.

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