GRANDPA SAYS – “THINK ON THESE THINGS”: “Is your heart as beautiful as an old barn?”

John Grey, a minister, writes on a Facebook page labeled, Preaching Ideas. He uses the theme “Grandpa Says”. Being an old man, I found his writing about the old barn had meaning for me!

Thanks!

Mike   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

“SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE BEAUTIFUL. NOT IN WHAT THEY SAY. JUST IN WHAT THEY ARE. BEAUTY IS ABOUT HAVING A PRETTY HEART. REAL BEAUTY IS A LIGHT IN THE HEART THAT IS ALWAYS ON.”

No one defines for God His concept of beauty. If a person is beautiful to God, he fits God’s concept of beauty.  God told Samuel --- “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). Nothing in a person’s outward appearance impresses God. God looks upon the inner beauty, the beauty of one’s heart.

Sure, an old barn was a handsome building in its day. But the passing seasons have 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, it has a beauty that can only come with the passing of time.  Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms, and scorching sun, can produce the beauty of persistent endurance.

You know, we're a lot like that old barn.  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 weather of our lives, the dry spells, and the stormy seasons to do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce. It is in our faithfulness that God sees beauty.

Spiritual beauty must never be taken for granted or be neglected. We must remember that just as it is possible to be one of society’s most impressive people and be ugly in the eyes of God, it is also possible to be an unknown in society and to be radiantly beautiful in His eyes.

Someday the old barn will fall down. And I reckon someday you and I will fall down and finish our journey to Heaven. And I suspect we'll be more beautiful in our glorified bodies because of the seasons we've been through here. 

Hold to God’s unchanging hand my friend!