At the border between Virginia and West Virginia, deep in the thickly wooded Shenandoah mountains, there is a small peak named Reddish Knob from which the entire valley can be seen. I stood atop that rock on several occasions and watched as the sun’s rays receded in rippled across the sharply contoured peaks. While the day had been long its end was swift.

In those brief moments my ears heard all that nature had to say, my eyes saw all that it could show, and I learned more than I could understand. I stood long enough to see the first stars twinkle, to hear the first cricket chirp, to feel the first faint chill of evening and I thought, “It is a wonderful world.”

Yes, under this newly laid cloak of darkness someone suffers from disease, another feels the pain of rejection, and still another knows the sting of death. The storms of life can erode even a mountain of hope until it is sand we hold and nothing more. It is clear that thorns mar the beauty of this world. We live in a fallen world and we have the scars to show it. Yet even though this world suffers decay, More >