From The Beauty Of
The Beauty of the Lord of the Rings
My childhood was difficult and blessed at the same time. My father had abandoned my family four times by the time I had graduated from High School. That was part of what God used to shape my soul for his use. I was always a book lover. Books help me escape the sadness. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led my imagination into the distant hills. I saw integrity and love, which was failing in my home. It was always a vacation to read through them yet again, which I have done many times over my lifetime. Peter Jacksons movie interpretations was amazing and hit home.
I can recall times of stress and sadness when we had little or no food or the utilities were off that I found solace and escape in Middle Earth. I found God there and Jesus and yes the Holy Spirit (Gandalf- "I am a Servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor).
In the appendix to The Lord of the Rings Tolkien said, “ The simple “rustic” love of same and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential to the study of his (the chief hero’s) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the longing for Elves and sheer beauty.”
In her book “The Battle for Middle Earth” author and Theologian Fleming Rutledge says, "Had the story ended any other way, our attention would have been drawn away from the “ennoblement, enlargement, and sanctification” (Tolkien’s words) of the humble, the small, the ungreat, the ignoble, the overlooked – which is, as we have noted so often, the emotional heart of Tolkien’s great story.”
Tolkien restates what our God says in, 1 Corinthians 1: 26-29 26Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.
There are many people who have found God in this wonderful literature! Perhaps it is time for you to reread theses marvelous books!
“Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. . .
. . . (quoting an obituary) 'There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it, he will sense to it an unjustifiable violation.' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord of The Rings”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
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