Spiritual & Blood Families

Yesterday I (Mark) was watching the second of the 2 parts of the Return of the King, the third part of the extended DVDs of Lord of the Rings (LOTR), kindly lent to me by Rich Atkinson.

I was watching it yesterday morning while babysitting Daniel at 7.30ish. (The joys of parenthood - on holiday and up at that time!) and felt God speak to me very powerfully about who I am. I was watching the crowning scene, when Aragon truly realises who he is called to be. Aragon has respect for the hobbits, a supposed lesser people, whilst they salute him as king, the ultimate authority in middle earth. I was very touched by this, basically to tears.

The same reaction occurred later when I was watching Neighbours (of all things!) and Stingrey had died, and his family was watching his video of his thoughts on the family, for his niece Kerry. Both incidents clearly showed a strong bond, one with a blood family, and one a spiritual family. The thing I realised God was saying to me through it, was that spiritual and blood family are both so important and generally taken far too much for granted. Also how we need to honour others within our families. It made me think how about how well, or not, I do it, and work out what changes need to be made in my life.

In addition the film obviously has a lot of fighting and goodies defeating baddies, the good guys dispelling the darkness out of middle earth. Again I was conscious of the whole spirit of adventure that as a man I am called to, and how I need passion in all things, even when the going is tough.

There also was a real sense of perseverance when things got difficult, to learn from, especially for good old Sam and Frodo. Sam never gave up, even when Frodo felt he needed to, due to the weight of the ring, and how he was such a hero, even though he would be considered the most unlikely to be. I felt God was affirming my need to be a hero, but a hidden and unlikely one. Unlikely comes easily to me, but to be hidden is still an area under construction!

Not like me to introvertly process but felt I wanted to blog this.