Caleb, our soon to be 12 year-old, asked me one of his great questions while we were at my folks cottage in the Finger Lake region of Upstate, NY. “What did Grandpa do up here before he built the barn?” Caleb noticed what joy grandpa got from being in and around his barn. It truly was the center of his existence while at the cottage.
The barn is awesome! It’s more new than rustic and more cozy than productive. We don’t have any animals (at least no livestock!) in the barn and although my dad owns two beautiful red Farmall tractors (an “M” and a “Super C”), we don’t have any fields to plow.
But the barn has become an indispensable part of the cottage experience. The barn is where the boys sleep (and the girls too when we have more company than our tiny little cottage can hold). The barn is where we have two additional refrigerators (one containing the “adult beverages.”). There’s an old chrome table that my dad scrubbed to shine like new that reminds us of days gone by. The barn is filled with stuff that makes my dad’s heart sing. He’s got cool stuff that reminds him of his farming days as a boy, stuff that reminds him of soldiers and world wars, stuff that he can use around the cottage and he knows exactly where all his stuff is located. Just ask him! The barn has enough room for 2 tractors, a car, a boat, an old horse buggy, and lots and lots of other stuff. The barn is where my dad can play “hide-n-seek” with the world around him and use a walky-talky to communicate with the cottage a few yards away.
Caleb is right in asking, “What did he do before the barn was built?” My folks bought the cottage in 1969, the year of the Miracle Mets! So much of my life has been shaped by that place. I spent the best summer days of my childhood there. My DNA was shaped there. I’ll NEVER get it out of my system! But for 30 some years there was no barn at our cottage. What seems such an indispensable part of our experience now wasn’t even in existence until a few years ago. What did we do? How did we manage?
Truth is, we managed just fine. It’s the same old awesome place with a new barn. For things that we hold dear to our hearts there is always the fear that doing, or building, something new will take away from the old. The stuff that made you fall in love for the first time.
Orangewood is about to build another “barn,” an education building. I’m so thrilled that we are moving forward. I hope and pray that it will be a place like the barn. A place for families to truly grow healthy and strong. A place where we say, “What did we do before the education building was built?”
Let’s keep moving forward, building as we can (don’t forget a sanctuary too) and not fear that we’ll take away from what’s dear to our hearts with the old, but will add to our experience and love with what is new! Our God loves doing something new while staying completely the same!
Nice post, Jeff! The barn is beautiful.
Posted by: Vicki | August 10, 2007 at 10:44 PM
Good Morning,
I really enjoyed your story of your Dad's barn. It brought back great memories for me, too. Great analogy with the new building.
Also.......thanks for being such a good "launcher" for my daughter, Sara. She was so thrilled with her acrobatic turn in the air and graceful dive into the water. I "know" God had a hand in that one!
Reed Hunt
Posted by: Reed Hunt | September 13, 2007 at 07:42 AM