A light in the darkness

Warning: If you have not read through the section of The Return of the King about dark land, do not read this post, but save it for later. Yes, Emily this warning is for you, even though this is not a story ruiner.

In the heart of the of the darkness of Mordor we find this passage:
"Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for awhile. 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. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep."

This is possibly one of the most moving parts of The Lord of the Rings. Even in the darkness of the heart of the evil land hope is found. The heart of Sam is peirced to the very center of his being with the fact that "the Shadow was only a small and passing thing." A small and passing thing? It is a shadow that comes from the devil, the one that that succeded in killing God for three days. But as Sam realized that there is a beauty that is beyond the darkness of the Shadow. There is something beyond it all. A beauty that no shadow can cover or touch to sully it. A beuaty that is pure as light. In realizing that beauty is beyond the Shadow, Sam was able to forget about his plight and rest without trouble. Corrie ten Bloom says something even more stricking because she was speaking of Hitler's Mordor. She says,"This darkness is very deep, but our God has gone far deeper. When you have been to Calvary, even Ravensbrook looks trivial.” When we know Christ in the dark places than all the darkness becomes trivial. That is all for the short comments I have for now.