Ridecamp: [RC] The Old Barn

There's an old barn on my place that sits right where I wanted to build
my new barn. Leaving it cost me quite a few extra bucks because of the
grading required, by my friends convinced me it was worth it.  Instead
of tearing it down, I planted antique climbing roses all around it. 
Now, in spring, the contrast of the "old red barn" and the splendor of
the roses dwarfs everything on the farm. I thought of that when I read
this story sent to us by Joan's Aunt...

THE 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, a lot of winters have passed with their
snow and ice and howling wind.

The summer sun has 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. 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.

They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify a rich
man's house. I reckon someday you and I will be hauled off to Heaven to
take on whatever chores the Good Lord has for us on the Great Sky Ranch.
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.

=====
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away"
=====

Jim, Sun of Dimanche, and Mahada Magic


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