"Reflection..........................."

In “The Lord of the Rings” there exists a character that has occupied my mind the last week or so, His image, alone, enough to give one pause, his voice merely adding to his physical witness in a way so as to speak of a soul existing beyond sanity. I’ve long identified him to others by the word that holds him bound, thinking it, indeed, his name, but “precious” actually referred to that small gold band around which the whole story gains its plot. It does seem, though, that such has come to claim his soul is really who he is, ALL that he is, his mind completely owned by that which he has sought to possess; and, whether or not Tolkien created this poor fellow from a knowledge of what the Bible speaks unto us, in my opinion, this portion of his tale could well be inserted into almost any sermon meant to reach humanity with the truth of who and what we are without God’s presence being involved in our life. Examining my own experience leads me to believe that, although birth didn’t place me in circumstances wherein any real teaching of the Gospel penetrated all else that was happening around me, my stumble down the path was somehow nonetheless never without a divine tug on my heart. He was there from the beginning. If events shaped me so deeply that even now, almost seventy-three years later, this inner being, this hidden “me”, is yet dealing with those things stamped into the very fabric of who and what I am, so much so that, even with Christ “in” me, the journey is far from knowing any degree of having overcome error. Within me, this “worm” possessing life in a physical body reminds me of “Precious” and differs only in as much as it has surrendered unto the influence of His Spirit re-connected internally over four decades back. Such embryo, positioned to one day be delivered unto eternity, is much more healthy than it once was, more aware that “worth” is not wrapped up in self, and more convinced than ever that He, alone, puts purpose and meaning into the next step. “Sin” is not some list of “thou-shalt-not"s, but rather a refusal to face the Creator in the nakedness of what we have made of ourselves……