Earendil

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." (LOTR The Return of the King)


I had almost forgotten reading this passage until recently in London I walked with my wife past St. Martin in the Fields and saw the sculpture in honour of Oscar Wilde. The inscription on the sculpture was "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" - a quote from one of Wilde's plays. My mind went back to Tolkien's words which I had recorded on my phone and which I proceeded to read to my wife at a nearby cafe. I am still struck by that passage from Tolkien. It occurs as Sam and Frodo make their way across the bleak, forsaken land of Mordor inching their way to Orodruin and the Cracks of Doom. Sam has almost abandoned hope of any future when he looked up and saw the star - and hope was renewed.
We all have those times when the world seems bleak and barren and dark are all in desperate need of a glimpse of eternal, piercing beauty to put our lives and aspirations into context. I thank God that at those times we can look up and glimpse eternal glory. The words of Paul in Second Corinthians come to mind. "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness" has shone in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." We look up and we see Jesus, the bright Morning Star and our hearts are pierced by wonder and beauty and glory and as the old chorus says, "the things of the world become strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

Above all it gives us the assurance that ultimately evil cannot triumph - good will prevail. There will be "new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness" and by God's grace it will also be our eternal home.