Awake

Are we ready to battle with evil?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a book that leaves me with an impression that evil should be approached with purity of heart; friends, prepared, armed, and ready; and a focused driven attitude—even to the point of sacrifice.

Though what I love best about the books in the Harry Potter series are the endearing protagonists, delightful setting, and engaging plot, many times in the series, especially in the last three books, I have paused to think about the due diligence (or lack thereof) evident in my own life as I walk with the current of the Kingdom-Come flowing swiftly and surely in and around me.

Am I prepared for the seemingly fantastical battles ahead? Is my soul ready for the heart-wrenching decisions I will face? Despite the content of witchcraft and wizardry which some oppose (though they may not object to it in LOTR), I believe the service J.K. Rowling renders to her readers, young and old alike, is the comingling of innocence and guilt, lightheartedness and forboding, safety and danger, truth and lie, illumination and obfuscation interwoven in a context of fictional story, characters, and setting.

Though rendered in the realm of fantasy, does this not inform, if not warn us here in the Real World and in the Church that though it may be too heart-breaking to acknowlege, to difficult to comprehend, to frightening to ponder, we are, as with all creation, headed toward a new world, a new earth, yes, a new creation—a place of victory—only preluded by epic battles of war, death, torture, separation, fire, destruction, monsters and beasts, and creatures that we perceive to only exist in Faerie?

I believe that Rowling, along with many other writers of fiction and fantasy, can prepare the imagination for the truth revealed in the Word of God. To me, we seem too ill-prepared for the days ahead. I am thankful to the writers, filmmakers, and other creatives who create a bridge from Reality to Another Place, so that when we close the book, walk out of the theatre, or power off the DVD player, we can return to our World, perhaps more prepared, or at least inclined to get prepared for the "real" magnificent stories awaiting us in the days to come.