Daily Thought for Monday 10th March 2025
“And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’”
John 2:4 (NRSV)
Not all who wander are lost
Norman Smith
The title of this reflection is taken from The Lord of the Rings, and a poem about Aragorn written by his friend Bilbo Baggins. Aragorn had spent many years wandering around Middle Earth in his role as a Ranger of the North. His job in these wanderings was to fight evil, defend the innocent and spend his life protecting those who needed it. In other words, although he wandered the world, he did so with purpose and an end goal in mind.
Tolkien who wrote these words was a man of Christian faith who knew and had studied the person of Jesus. After his mother died he and his brother were adopted by Father Francis Xavier Morgan who was a priest known to the family. Father Morgan provided for the boys and their education right up through university. When speaking about him, Tolkien said, “I witnessed half comprehending the heroic sufferings and early death in extreme poverty of my mother who brought me into the Church; and I received the astonishing charity of Francis Morgan.”
Tolkien’s faith consequently expressed itself through his Roman Catholic upbringing with its emphasis on Jesus’ death and victory over sin and triumph over evil. You can see how the idea of humanity striving continually for good and against evil – suffering setbacks but ultimately triumphing – is present throughout his writings.
In terms of Aragorn he created this character who covered half the world yet was not lost and had a very clear purpose in his life of vanquishing evil. His life was purposeful.
Our reading today may have been one of the passages that fed into Tolkien’s depiction of Aragorn as it also exudes purpose. Jesus is clear when challenged about the wine that he is here for a specific reason with particular things to do. Not even his mother was going to distract him. Only later on though does that purpose become clear.
If someone was going to turn your life into a novel do you think it would be purposeful? Would you be seen as a wandering beacon of good, vanquishing evil? Or would you be seen as someone who is wondering what it’s all about?
Shall we pray?
Father you sent your son to earth with the purpose of dying on the cross to redeem us. He then gave us the purpose of going into the world to make disciples. We cannot do this without you so please help. Amen.
Thinking it through:
Jesus clearly had a purpose and an end goal. What do you think your purpose and end goal are?
Are you wandering with purpose or wondering what your purpose is?
What would it mean to your life to have a clear sense of God in your daily routine?