Books and Stories

My family moved quite often as I was growing up. Although I learned about different parts of the southeastern US, it became hard for me to make friends. Having felt the pain of leaving once too often, it became easier to merely be nice and polite but not to get too close. As a replacement for these people, I fell in love with reading.

The characters in the books could go with me wherever...they too could move at the drop of a hat and never change. If I became particularly lonely, I could re-visit a book that I had read before and feel comfortable in the familiarity of the story.

In High School I was introduced by one of my English teachers to JRR Tolkien via his epic works...first The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings. For those who have read these stories, you know they are a world unto themselves with right, wrong, good, bad, humans, elves, dwarfs and other creatures. Since this was before the days of Internet, it was hard to find others to discuss the books with but in time, it was my great pleasure to introduce them to my husband and son. Both of them brought their own interpretations and opinions and went spent much time in conversation about every aspect of the story.

There was joy and trepidation when we heard the Lord of the Rings would be made into movies. How could anyone hope to put the depth of each character on film and do justice to the work? Needless to say we were thrilled with Peter Jackson's vision (the Ents were just as I had imagined them!) and bought them all when they became available on DVD.

There is much in the words of these books that can apply to our life as Christians. Two of the characters that didn't make it into the movies were Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry (the River-Woman's daughter). They were quite lovable and unique but it was obvious that there was more to them than meets the eye. At one point, Tom rescues Frodo, Sam and the other hobbits from Old Man Willow (a tree with evil intent and interesting powers). The hobbits had called out for help when they realized they were trapped and Frodo assumed that Tom had heard their cries. But Tom says” Eh, what? Did I hear you calling? Nay, I did not hear, I was busy singing (a favorite pastime of his). Just chance brought me then, if chance is what you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you.”

We can apply this to our Christian walk...we know God is there and in prayer we interact with Him. But, by and large we go about the business of our lives without much thought that there is a plan far greater than we are able to know. Although God is not so busy singing that He does not hear our cries for help, He still operates on His time, and with His knowledge of what we need. We are called to trust and know that evil only affects us if we allow it and that He will rescue us when we have need.