Exploring where life and story meet!

Friday, January 18, 2013

The valley of the shadow...

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”  Samwise Gamgee, The Two Towers, J. R. R. Tolkien. 
This year has been a strange one, not without its own wonders and joys, but overwelmingly one that has not made alot of sense, at least when viewed close-up.  I always like this quote of Sam's, it reminds me that I cannot view life from three feet away; I must wait and see what happens in the rest of the story and only in that light will it make sense.   There have been times before where I wondered what on earth was going on, only to look back and realize how well things had turned out after all.  The only problem with life is that you cannot stay up all night and read to the last page as you can with a novel.  It must be lived one day at a time, but no matter how dark or sad or confusing, there is hope even if we cannot see it.  I hope that the shadow has passed, that the morning is coming, but I do not know that for sure, at least not yet.  But whether the day is dawning or I yet have to trudge through the depths of night, I have this hope, much like Sam.  Even if I do not understand, there is One who does.  After all, He is the one who wrote the story!
 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Psalm 23: 4 (KJV).


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