Old and Rusty: Many Tales to Tell

There's just something about old barns and rusting vehicles that thrills me. I love to think about the stories behind each one. On the way out to a forested hiking place my husband and I love, we drive along a winding road. Dips and heights and forests and low places, it's all so beautiful.

An old barn, weathered from years of use and the elements, looks about to fall down, yet is still there many years after we first laid eyes on it.

I stop to take a picture of it and the rusting hulk of a truck, now covered with blackberry vines.

My mind runs wild thinking about the settlers that cultivated this patch of wilderness. Where are they now? From where did they come? How many hopes and dreams went into the plowing and harvesting? Why did they leave?

I'll never know the answers to those particulars, but I like to think about the way I find beauty in old and rusty things, just as God does in me. I'm getting old and for sure feel quite rusty at times, but He loves me anyway. The difference is, He knows my story and there is no mystery or sense of worthlessness there.