RISING OR SETTING, THE SUN LOOKS THE SAME

Thursday, March 04, 2010

(In his splendid book, All Things Are Possible Through Prayer, Charles Allen uses some excellent illustrations I would like to share with you here.)

In Switzerland there is a town by the name of End der Welt. In English it means "End of the world." It is surrounded by high mountains and the road into it suddenly stops on the farther side of the town before an impassible rocky cliff. When one gets there, he feels he can go no further. But hidden away in that rocky cliff is a narrow path that leads up the mountain to the heights above. If one searches diligently, he can find that path and go on.

At some time in life, nearly every person arrives at a place which seems to be the "end of the world." We remember Miss Haversham in Dickens' Great Expectations. Elaborate preparations had been made for her wedding but her lover jilted her. In grief and humiliation, Miss Haversham closed all the blinds of the house, stopped every clock, left the wedding cake on the table to gather cobwebs, and continued to wear her wedding dress until it hung in yellow decay about her shrunken form. Her disappointment became her end of the world.

I read about a traveler who fell down the side of a mountain and was knocked unconscious. Finally he woke up but he had no idea how long he had been there. He had lost all sense of time and direction. He looked across the valley and saw the sun just above the horizon, but he could not tell whether the sun was rising or setting For the first time he realized that, rising or setting, the sun looks the same.

So it is in life--these experiences come upon us that change our lives. ...What seemed to be the end may be a new beginning.