Rosemead Kiwanis Club
"Serving the Community Since 1945"
FAX OF
LIFE
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Rosemead Kiwanis Club "Serving the Community Since 1945" |
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FAX OF LIFE
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The Fax of Life
A weekly inspiration, courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley
(distributed free by the Kiwanis Club of Rosemead, CA - rosemeadkiwanis.org )
July 26, 2009
Volume 14, Number 41
OLD BARNS AND OLD PEOPLE
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 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 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.
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!
--- Contributed by cousin Kathie!
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. All of its Clubs are independently-run community service groups.
The Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley normally meets at the Heavenly Café in Scott's Valley, CA, on Wednesdays at 7 am - see the Scott's Valley Kiwanis website @ http://svkiwanis.org for details; The Kiwanis Club of Rosemead normally meets on Thursdays at 12:10 in Rosemead, CA - see the Rosemead Kiwanis website @ http://rosemeadkiwanis.org for confirmation and directions. Visitors are welcome to join meetings of either club anytime.
There is no charge to anyone for receiving the "Fax," which today is circulated by e-mail rather than literally by FAX. If you have been encouraged in any way by the message, pass it on by saying something encouraging to someone else during the week. To subscribe to the free weekly RKC Reporter, of which the "Fax" is an attachment, simply email kcrosemead@aol.com,
Neither the Scott's Valley or Rosemead Kiwanis Clubs make any representations as to the accuracy of quotes or actions attributed to named individuals; material selected for the Fax of Life comes from a variety of sources and is chosen based solely on its presumed inspirational value to readers.