setup: [E-Mail Ministry] The Weathered Old Barn

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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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