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.
Author Unknown to me at
this time
 Photo:
Moon and Back original.
This old barn is the quite
famous Old Mormon Barn,
raised in the late 1800's
and still standing.
It is found just outside
the Teton National Park.
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