"Come with me," he said. "Let's take a walk."

So I said goodbye to the Father and turned to my best friend. He put his arm around me and we left the throne room. Suddenly, we were walking up a winding path. It was smooth and bare, comfortable to my bare feet. Lush green grass grew on either side of the path. Birds trilled melodious songs that caught in the air and wafted over us and down the path. A warm fuzzy rabbit hopped onto the path and stopped. Brown eyes welcomed us, her nose twitched three times and she hopped on across the path into the lush grass.

My best friend smiled down at me. I just love his smile. It is filled with caring and love and goofy surprises. I smiled back. My smile was filled with the delight of being in his presence.

The path widened and ended on a mountaintop. There at the edge of a cliff was a soft plaid afghan spread all out, inviting us to sit upon it. My best friend is very considerate, meticulous down to the smallest details. He led me over to the edge of the cliff.

"Have a seat and we can talk for a while," he said as he motioned to the waiting afghan.

I firmly held onto his hand as I sat down on the spreading plaidness, for I am afraid of open heights. But as long as I held his hand, the fear was gone, whisked away by his presence. My best friend lowered himself down to sit beside me and we looked out over the panorama below us.

Mountains were everywhere, burgeoning out of the earth, thrusting into the light of the sun as if seeking its warmth. Deep valleys crawled between the mountains, seeming to go nowhere, but if I looked close enough, I could see a faint design in their placement. Their deeper green suggested water, sprouting life. The sky was a crisp robins' egg blue tenderly dotted with white puffy clouds that wafted along, being pushed by the wind, offering it no resistance.

I looked up at my best friend.

"What do you see?" he asked me, idly playing with the ring on my finger.

"I see mountains, valleys, sun, sky and clouds," I answered him, drowning in the look of love in his eyes.

"Is that all?" he questioned, as he threw out his arm and invited me to look again.

I looked again and saw the valleys were darker. A storm seemed to be gathering in their midst. Lightening flashed, thunder rumbled. And as if in response the valley quivered. I could see the partially hidden valley shift, as if in the throes of pain. Then I looked up and saw the mountains move, yes, they actually moved. Getting taller, higher, climbing up to try to reach the sun.

"I see pain in the valleys, storms in the valleys," I responded slowly, gathering my thoughts.

"And the mountains?" my best friend asked, not allowing me to get by with a superficial analysis.

"I see the mountains getting larger, growing somehow, like they are striving to reach the sky and embrace the sun."

"You have seen truly," my best friend smiled down at me. "The valleys are life, earthly life. They are a place of growth, of sadness, of trials and tribulations. At times, they can be a place of the shadow of death. But they are essential."

"Why?" I asked him, confused. "Why do we have to be in the valleys? They are dark and foreboding and full of pain."

"They are also green, filled with life and the opportunity of growth. For without pain and trial, there can be no growth."

I pondered on what he had said. I thought back over the past few years of my life and realized that within the valleys that I had walked, I had been nourished and sheltered within my best friend's arms...and I had grown.

"When you are in the valley and confronted with pain and tribulation and growth," my best friend went on, "a miraculous thing happens. A birthing takes place. The valley groans and quivers and shudders with the pangs of growth. And when the moment arrives, the birthing moment, the ground shudders and a mighty force pushes the mountains up, carrying you to the sky and the sun."

I looked over into my best friend's face and he was smiling that sweet smile that delighted me with its love and humor and slight goofiness. I smiled a major goofy smile right back at him.

"Do you understand, my heart?" he asked tenderly.

I just love it when he calls me that.

"I understand," I answered his call. "We have to go through the valleys in order to sit upon the mountaintops."

"Exactly!" my best friend exclaimed.

He got up and pulled me to my feet and we danced around the top of that mountain to the music of the birds The warm fuzzy rabbit scampered out of the lush grass with some of her friends and joined us in that dance. Then a bear and a fox and cougar bounded up and waltzed around us as we danced through the air filled melody.

For we were no longer dancing on the mountaintop. We were dancing in the air, twirling through the clouds, waltzing across a rainbow. For you see, my best friend is no ordinary best friend. My best friend is Jesus, the Son of God, and when you dance with Jesus, anything and everything is possible.