Old Barns And Old People

July 1, 2010

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 Pennsylvania type Amish; you could tell by his clothes, his haircut, and the way he talked.

He said he was driving by in a taxi car 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 from Pennsylvania 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 sports den, which he was building in the Lancaster area. 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 Lord knows what He's doing.

And as the years pass, 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 another man's house.

And I reckon someday, you and I'll be hauled off to Heaven to take on whatever chores the 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. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

And I do sincerely Thank God for my wonderful friends and family who care about me, even though I show signs of weathering!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

...but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Note two significant points from 2nd Cor. 4:16-18:

1. The Christian's afflictions are light when compared to the glory he shall receive in heaven. Note the phrase "weight of glory." This picture should always be kept in mind by every Christian. The picture is that of a set of scales sitting before the Christian. He balances his afflictions on one end and the eternal glory he is to receive on the other end. The afflictions may be heavy and severe, but when he places the eternal glory he is to receive on the scales, the afflictions become light. It is as though they weigh nothing.

2. The Christian's eyes are not focused on the physical and temporal, but on the spiritual and eternal. The word "look" means to focus one's eyes and attention on a set goal or end. The goal, of course, is spending eternity with God in the new heavens and earth. The Christian does not look at the things which are seen (the physical and corruptible), but at things which are not seen (the spiritual and incorruptible).

The reason is strikingly clear: the things which are seen are temporal (brief, temporary, fading, passing, fleeting, transient); but the things which are not seen are eternal (lasting, endless, forever, permanent, immortal, glorious).

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