I was a ginormous Harry Potter fan growing up. Waiting in line for each book, I highly anticipated each successive story to the series. I wasn't much of a reader, but when a new Potter book came out, my next two days were devoted to reading, eating, and maybe a couple hours of sleeping. I think I pulled more all-nighters reading Harry Potter than I have my entire college experience. Anyway....
I feel like the story of "the boy who lived" is perfect for illustrating an interesting thought that I considered a little over a year ago.
J.K. Rowling knows everything about Harry Potter because she created him, right? Every strength, weakness, and hair on his head creation of her imagination. But does Harry know J.K. Rowling?
To Harry, J.K. Rowling doesn't exist at all, or if she did, he would know nothing about her. The only way for Harry to know J.K. Rowling would be for her to write herself into the story.
So now we are looking at the imaginary world that Harry lives in from an external perspective instead of the internal perspective all the books are narrated from. A perspective where he is still participating in his story, but doesn't know his own author, Ms. Rowling.
We live in our own world, with our own story, very similar to Harry. We go through our personal plot-line that follows our own pursuit of happiness and self-discovery through countless little adventures: school, our careers, relationships with friends and families, hobbies, and the random journeys we venture. Yet, is it possible that we cannot see outside the bubble that we live in, like Harry?
Could it be a story within a story? And no I'm not transitioning to Inception here.
What if the J.K. Rowling of our story came and lived with us so we could know her?
Unlike J.K. Rowling, our author has written Himself into our story so we can know Him. He humbled Himself to live as a man amongst us and died for our sins so that we could know Him.
It sounds crazy, and growing up, I always had doubts. It didn't make sense in the context of everything we have going on here. I thought it was all about how good of a person I was here. But think about this.... We have a limited perspective on life outside ourselves. We struggle with understanding so many things here on earth, let alone the things unseen. So how can our views be objective and true without an external perspective?
As I said earlier, I pondered this thought a year ago, and I've changed a lot since then because of it. I changed because I realized that Jesus is God's way of writing Himself into our story.
I noticed my own weaknesses and inability to live a perfect life. I am unfit to be in His presence when I leave this world. I couldn't save myself. Only through the sacrifice of His perfect son am I able to be rescued from the death I deserve. He sent Jesus to die undeservingly for us so that for those who believe in Him will have eternal life with Him.
And if this is true, it completely changes everything. If Harry knew that his world, his story, was just a source of entertainment for millions of people in our world he would probably act differently. Maybe he would crack a few Hufflepuff jokes. So what does it mean for us?
He wants us to know Him!
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
- Revelation 3:20
For the first time, I realized what the story is all about. He wants us to know Him, and I'm so glad I opened the door to let Him in. He's been knocking for a long time.
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