The Great Tree of Possibilities

I was pondering the implication of the name "The Great Tree of Possibilities" again as I read my mother's Myst fanfiction Visitation.

You see, your average tree has a trunk from which all its branches spread. That trunk is essentially the visible starting point. Thus, the simile implies that all possibilites spring from one fact or one deed. What if that fact is based in more facts or that deed was caused by millions of others before it? When you reach the last of Tree's roots, what do you see? Those little tubers are in turn are in the soil. I think that soil is ultimately reality, truth.

I believe that even possibility must operate in firm fact.

As for how Ages come to be, I think that they probably come from the infinite mind of the Maker. Writers merely decribe places that either exist as possiblities or as fully functional worlds.

Is love worth the price?

Is caring about others worth the occasional(and sometimes not-so-occasional) grief that goes along with it?

Well, God seems to think so. God knows everything about everything; past, present, and future. He cannot be tricked. Consequently, He must have known that He would be betrayed by many of His creations. He also knew that the ones who stayed with Him would still grieve Him from time to time until sin is destroyed. He still chose to make them and to allow them to think for themselves.

Because of His choice to make angels and humans and give them free will, I know God values love and free will very highly indeed.

The sorrow that often pursues love can come from an unkind word or deed, from an accident, from losing a friend to something...

In spite of the pain, God still chooses to love His creatures. In spite of the pain, love still enriches a person's life in ways indescribable.

Treat your friends well. Make sure they know you care. You never know when you could lose them or how.

A small happy glowing thing...

...that was actually helpful during the power outage after Ernesto. It is a glass goblet made for the release of Lotr: Fellowship of the Ring.

My grandmother found this several days before Ernesto came. At the time, I just thought that its glow was just a pretty toy. However, that same glow made it possible for me to find it very easily in the dark.

In Memory of those who died on September 11 2001

God, please have mercy on the souls of those who died. Please also help us who still live to do what is right before You. You are why America was never taken over. You gave America her prosperity. You set a covenant before us, that if we would do what is right and seek Your will, then we would prosper.