Did you see the Lord of the Rings films that Peter Jackson directed? I love the movies, and I love talking to others about the movies.
One of the common conversation pieces that comes up about the films (and books in general) is the problem of the eagles. At one point our hero of the story, Frodo, meets up with some gigantic eagles that rescue him from peril and take him part of the way to his destination—Mount Doom. From there, Frodo continues his travels to the still distant volcano where he can destroy the ring that is polluting the world with its power.
So many people are frustrated with the stories, because they wonder why the eagles didn’t just take Frodo to the mountain. Essentially, the third book would be completely unnecessary, because Frodo could just land on the mountain and throw the ring into the molten lava. Book complete.
But Gandalf, the god-like wizard who arranged the meet-up with the eagles, chose Frodo to have the finish the journey by himself. Why did he do that?
Search the web if you want to see some pretty complex theories of why. But I believe the reason comes from the fact that Gandalf was meant to be a metaphor or picture of God. JRR Tolkien, although he didn’t write this story as an allegory for the Christian walk, couldn’t help but infuse his faith into the pages of his book. And to me, those shows a powerful facet of God’s character. And that is, that He’s more concerned with our journey than He is with our destination.
Ultimately, He wants us to join Him in Heaven. But I’m talking about our destination here on earth. God is more concerned with conforming us into His image than us obtaining some sort of career or status. Who you become is more important than what you become.
If God was more concerned with us becoming a certain thing, He might as well zap us all into Heaven right now. He already knows what the end result of our lives will be. He could know who will make it to Heaven and who won’t. But instead, He loves seeing us walk through a journey and helping us along. He loves developing character within us. He loves redeeming our mess-ups and turning them into something God. He loves us to join in with Him in His work on the earth.
Don’t look for eagles to take you where you need to be. The journey is the important part of life.
