3. Begin with God

RECENTLY I had the opportunity to see a magnificent diamond called the "Shah of Persia," said to be worth half a million dollars. About four inches in circumference and one inch in depth, it throbbed in its setting with liquid fire as though alive. The constantly changing, sparkling colors were unforgettably beautiful.

Later that same day, looking over the rows of newly trimmed grapevines in the garden, I noticed the sap had begun to rise, and every pruned branch was starting to exude large globules of moisture. As the vine stirred, these globules caught the sunlight and flashed with a blinding brilliance surpassing even that of the famed "Shah of Persia." Diamonds out of the earth, into jewel, into vineyard, each beginning with the same source, God, the originator of all beauty! "Looking upon the grain of sand, we cannot tell how it cometh or whither it goeth, but we know that it is forever held in the bosom of the whole, the same as are the stars in the heavens and the gold in the earth."

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