From the J.R.R. Tolkien classic, The Return of the King:
“But Sam lay back, and started with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last has gasped: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”
“A great shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then as sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.
“How do I feel?” he cried. “Well I don’t know how to say it. I feel, I feel” – he waved his arms in the air – “I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!”’
“Behold, I am making all things new.” – Jesus (Revelation 21:5)
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Great post, my father read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series to my brother and I when we were kids. He used all the dramatic voices for the characters, it was great!
I remember this passage because dad read it to us while we were on a long car drive. There wasn’t a dry eye in the car. We all got it, Gandalf was like Jesus, and Jesus made all things new and beautiful. He brought laughter and hope with his life and resurrection.
Thank you for the beautiful trip down memory lane
Yes, amen brother, and thank you. Everything sad is indeed coming untrue. Someday our deepest and forboding fears will be so outshined by the greatness of the Gospel that they will seem frivolous.