Comparing The Life Of An Old Barn To Our Lives

I received the below in an email message today from my friend Michael that use to work in Human Resources with me. He and his wife moved up to Kemmerer, WY (where we moved from after 15 years) at least 5 years ago. He still keeps in touch by forwarding messages to some of us still down her in the big city. When I read this this morning and looked at the pictures of the old barns, I thought about my sister and how she will go around looking for old barn wood to do various different projects. It is a perspective about old barns that I never thought about too much. In fact, I never even thought how one could compare an old barn to a person. Now I see it! I know that when Dave and I go on vacations, especially back east, I hunt for the different size, shapes and colors of barns, especially the old ones. And the very person I think about when I'm looking is my sister. I too love the barns, but I'm not ever ambitious enough to go looking for the old wood. Maybe some day when I retire. Anyway, I thought that some of you out there would like to see this so I am making it my post for this day. Enjoy!

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.