The Stock and Stone

Recently, some friends of ours gave Sweetness a chalk roller for her birthday. It's a great gift, one of those things that encourages both outside play and creativity. Below you will see a sketch in our driveway that made me quite proud, it was her rendition of a hand:
After I took the picture, though, I thought "I've seen this before". Sure enough, a quick search turned up this from the Lord of the Rings movie "The Two Towers":

That's right, the dreaded White Hand of Saruman. Hopefully there's no real connection here. Don't get me wrong, Saruman was a great character, just not somebody I want my daughter modeling herself after. With power only matched by vanity, Saruman was sent to do a good work, only to fall because of his pride and greed. Interestingly to me, he's one of the earliest literary characters I can think of that was used to push an environmental message. He took a hallowed land and exploited it to serve his selfish ambition, leaving a poisoned and barren waste behind him after his plan failed. It was his blinding belief in himself that lead him to neglect the same natural order he initially loved.

My recent readings in the book of Daniel (especially the first 6 chapters) provide a great case study of somebody with enormous God-given talents who seeks to serve others with his abilities and pass the credit on up the line where it belongs. Check it out.