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A Far Green Country
February 15, 2007 - 11:41 p.m.

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I've added some new photos to my album. Click here to see them, or click the little picture block over in the left sidebar.


Ah, Reading Week. Blessed season. I think it should be marked by a major church festival. Actually, next week we'll observe Ash Wednesday...normally not seen as a celebratory day.

I'm very fond of Ash Wednesday. I know it's not a popular topic for a lot of people, but the reminder that I'm mortal is a welcome one. This life, as good as it gets, is not the end. Whatever we accomplish in this world, although important and meaningful here and now, will some day shed away. We'll drop this mortal coil, like dropping a robe, and step into our true selves in God's presence.

Death is not an end, other than for our mundane flesh. It's a beginning, a new birth. That's why saints are celebrated on the anniversaries of their bodily deaths. Those deaths mark their births into their true selves, into what God made them to be. Christ is that true self, the New Adam who not only shows us but draws us into who we really are.

A couple years back, also at Ash Wednesday, I quoted this scene from The Return of the King...but it's so apt I think it bears repeating.

Pippin: "I didn't think it would end this way."

Gandalf: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another a path. One that we all must take. The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it."

Pippin: "What, Gandalf? See what?"

Gandalf: "White shores. And beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

Pippin: "Well, that isn't so bad."

Gandalf: "No. No it isn't."

Amen.

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