Noble is as noble does

I would call myself a Lord of the Rings fan. Everyone who knows me would then call me a liar because my love of the books and subsequently the movies is way beyond just being a fan. My good friend Literature Lover sent me to a site where she had seen a video she said I just had to post. She was right, and now it's posted. I'm gonna move quickly to what it is I have to say, but first one quick note. This is "My Sacrifice" by Creed, one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite groups. The video, however, features clips from the Lord of the Rings, all focused on Samwise Gamgee.

Kyle told a story at one of our gatherings about a King and his little daughter who gets lost. It was a great story (you just gotta hear Kyle tell a story). A number of things stuck with me but one of the "concepts" that landed on me was how that although the daughter is lost and separated from her father the king, she soon begins to lead, help, and inspire the group of runaways and orphans she connects with. I wish I could remember exactly how Kyle worded it, but the idea is that even though she was lost and so distant from who she actually was, to the point of no longer even believing those memories were true, her character as someone with noble blood eventually surfaced as she became the leader of her ragtag group.

Aragorn is one of my greatest heros. I want to be like him: brave, wise, compassionate, a leader. He is the righful heir to the throne, born noble, and he acts like it. I love Viggo Mortenson's portrayal of him. Viggo makes him cool, bad, and yeah, he's hot (secure enough in my manhood to say it). Maybe if I looked like that at least by appearances I would look like I belong with my wife. She's hot. I'm certain people see us together and the inevitable conversation of "How did that guy end up with her?" breaks out. If I looked like Aragorn, maybe they would say something like "Guys like that always get the hot ones!" (Until they talked to me and realized that I'm a buffoon who doesn't deserve her... good lookin buffoon though). Aragorn is a warrior poet, and he looks the part and acts the part because he is the part. So why at the end of "The Return of the King" is he kneeling before Sam and the other Hobbits? Because he recognized true nobility.

True nobility is a heart issue, not a title or position. Sometimes those with title and position also posses the heart: Gandalf, Elrond, Aragorn, Legolas; sometimes they don't: Saruman, Sauron, Denethor. Sam is loyal, true, brave, committed, passionate about his friend and master. He stays when all else would leave, he pursues when he has no chance of catching, and he is full of hope, encouragement, and common sense. In spite of the heroic deeds and actions of Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, and even Frodo, without Sam the quest fails, and Middle Earth falls. He doesn't look the part, but he is the picture of nobility.

I got adopted by the King. My bloodlines changed, the old ones passed and a new one came. I'm nobility. Maybe someday I'll quit masking my nobility in a fog of false beliefs about the King. I spent a long time letting those long separated from Him tell me what He is like, and now those much more familiar with Him sharpen me, and remind me that he is not a distant King, but my Father. Maybe soon my life will reflect the bloodline to which I am born, or, more accurately, born again. Maybe I'll be like Sam.