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 like
that. 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.