Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. Robert Frost

There is something magical about branching patterns. You see them on trees and in blood vessels, as nerves branch. We see branching not only in nature (as shown: the bronchial tree and the Mississippi River delta) but also in our own lives. Robert Frost reminds us that you cannot take two roads and be one traveler. And I love what Yogi Berra said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”! Berra’s quip has more wisdom than I at first realized. So many of us face decisions with trepidation. What is the best thing? What are the consequences to our stakeholders? What will my friends/parents/co-workers/children/the neighbors say? I visit with patients every day facing the major decision of considering spine surgery. How can we know what is best? It is not always easy to know.

And when it comes to choices, the most crucial of all involves what we believe. Jesus said that to believe in him was to have eternal life. This is certainly a fantastic claim, breathtakingly audacious! When you really think about it, no mortal, sane man would make such a claim. Its author is either deluded, despicable, or Divine. No other options are available. Can belief alone make such a difference? I think we are seeing more clearly than ever that thought and belief are at the very fabric of being. So which road do you choose? Are the myriad of similarities we see complete coincidence? Is there really another life after this one? Can belief make all the difference? I submit that God gave us our sense of wonder and awe for a reason, and secular culture devalues this sense of wonder because it cuts right to the heart of the matter: we are not accidents.