Friday, January 4, 2008

Old Barns and People

Once more I received an e-mail that I found to be thought provoking and contained a message that we can all learn something from. With that said, I pass it on to you.
~Enjoy~





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 ' til 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 pas s 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.


5 comments:

Janice said...

Beautiful words and beautiful barns, put together making a wonderful post...thank you!!

Anonymous said...

This is very inspirational.. :)

The simile is very thought provoking,and makes me smile...at the realization, that yes, there is true beauty in aging gracefully.

Anonymous said...

Very Cool pics! I love old barns. I have a collection on my website

http://www.willinois.com/barns.html

I'd like to know what you think!

Jeff

Anonymous said...

love old barns and the text.
Greetings from down on bayou Lafourche.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure how I stumbled on to your blog but I was stopped dead in my tracks when the cajun music started playing! I was born/raised on a farm in central Illinois and was transferred to Houston at a later date, and then to the Port Arthur/Groves area of East Texas. I truly fell in love with the cajun folks and their style of living. Since then I've lived/worked in many places but none have been as enjoyable as the Port Arthur/Groves area of Texas. I live in and retired in Arlington, TX but have maintained a friendship with many of the Port Arthur people. And, yes, after closing the 'establishments' in Port Arthur at night, traveled across the river into Lake Charles to top off the evening! LOL