memory is not what the heart desires
I am 25 pages away from completing The Fellowship of the Ring again. Since I am a Bible teacher I am always on the lookout for illustrative material for use in my lectures. I finished my reading of LOTR last night with a section that is just begging for spiritual application. So I want to give all my fellow Gospel-loving Lord of the Rings fans (especially Rick!) the opportunity to share how you would make spiritual application from the following LOTR selection.
Context: The members of the fellowship have just received their parting gifts from Galadriel. Gimili talks with Legolas about his experience as they depart Lothlorien on the Great River.
“Suddenly the River swept round a bend, and the banks rose upon either side, and the light of Lorien was hidden…The travelers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.
“‘I have looked the last upon that which was fairest,’ he said to Legolas his companion. ‘Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift.’ He put his hand to his breast.
“‘Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Gloin!’
“‘Nay!’ said Legolas. ‘Alas for us all! And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Gloin: for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlorien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.’
“‘Maybe,’ said Gimli; ‘and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless, yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it c lear as Kheled-zaram’” (pp. 394-395).
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Here is one small observation:
"Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road."
In this respect see Isaiah 42:16 "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and the crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them."
Here is one observation regarding the dark roads of our lives as well as the sovereignty of God:
"Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared..."
See in this respect, Isaiah 42:16 "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and the crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them."
"Whoever loses his life shall find it." Gimli may illustrate the believer who, at the cross or in the process of sanctification, is reborn/prodded by God's Spirit to "count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord." Having reached that very destination, the pilgrim finds utter joy in a losing/finding glimpse of God's reality and his salvation, but realizes mind-numbing danger in the unfinished pilgrimmage that lies before. Nothing will be as fatal/eternal as living/dying in the light of this gospel. Nevertheless, the vision/memory of the cross shall sustain him on this dark path, until he looks into the light again and it becomes his ultimate reality forever.
i keep coming back to this entry. it intrigues me. i like the title of it and the and its place in the line it appears. but was does the last line mean? "That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zaram"?
Kheled-zaram is a lake a mile beneath the Eastern Gate of Moria. Its deep blue water mirrored a the stars at night and the blue sky in the day. So Gimli's point is that even memory at its best and clearest (like the reflection of Kheled-zaram) is still just memory. What we won't and desire most is the reality behind the memory. My application is that the Gospel gives to us the reality behind what we desire most, namely, fulness of joy and pleasures forever more.
i like it.