A few weeks ago, inspired by a Netflix series which my wife and I watched earlier this year, I decided to read Anne of Green Gables.  For the uninitiated, it's a story of a girl named, naturally, Anne (a girl who always emphasizes that it is "Ann with an e") who, after being orphaned when she was only a few months old, comes to live with a brother and sister at their farm, Green Gables, in the town of Avonlea.
     A bright and vivacious red head, Anne, though she initially commits a number of social faux pas(s), ends up endearing herself to the entire community.  As the story ends, Anne has finished her first year of teacher training (she wants to be a teacher) and has won a scholarship for four additional years of study at an area college.  However, Matthew, the brother, has just died of a heart attack.  Anne then decides to stay in Avonlea and teach there so as to help Marilla (the sister) keep the Green Gables farm going.  She will catch up with college later.
     Over twenty years ago, my wife and I had opportunity to see the house on Prince Edward Island where Lucy Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables (and many sequels).  As I reflect on our brief tour, I realize afresh that the idea of Anne flowed out of a world rich in natural wonder.  It's a lovely house on a lovely island.  So when I read the final lines of the novel, as Anne says, "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world," I see the wisdom of an observation of Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  "Read the first chapter of Genesis without prejudice," he said, "and you will be convinced at once [of the presence of God]."
     As Anne well knew, life goes up and life goes down, but as long as there is transcendent presence, life remains.