Let's Head for the Barn!


"It's getting late. Let's head to the barn!"

Chances are you've either said that or remember a parent or grandparent urge you to head home once the sun began to set low in the sky.

This is a picture of the cantilever barn in Cades Cove at the Cable Mill area. There are a couple examples of cantilever barns on the 11-mile loop through Cades Cove. While they may take on slightly different shapes, it was a design in which the upper story was larger than its base.

These barns featured an overhang for an upper loft. The lofts were used for storage of hay or other materials and the lower crib areas were where livestock was kept. This design allowed animals, which were normally outside, to stand underneath the overhang in order to get out of the sun or rain. The farm animals resting under the eaves in Cades Cove would have included pigs, hogs, chickens, goats and (in winter) cattle.

So, all in all heading to the barn is not such a bad thing. Animals found a place of food, safety and rest. I hope heading home is a place where you want to be and where you have your greatest needs met.

I sincerely trust that you are looking beyond your temporary, chaotic, earthly home for a much improved, permanent, heavenly home. The Apostle Paul wrote what was revealed to him concerning heaven...

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

Now that is one barn hunting trip I am really looking forward to!

Cades Cove, GSMNP

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