Magic and Mystery....oh my!!!

Today is the day that some people are going nuts....
Nuts over Harry Potter. The first day the final book hits the bookstores. All over the news last night they were showing Harry Potter parties. Gozillion of people waiting in lines, dressed as the Harry Potter characters.

This morning, as a watched the TV over coffee, they were interviewing children on why they love Harry Potter so much. Almost all the answers I heard were that they like the way that they feel transported to the magical world of Hogwarts, with all its magic and spells.

Although I don't go "all out" the way these people do over Harry Potter, I have to admit, even as an adult I've enjoyed reading the three Harry Potter books I've read. How fun!

But after listening to the kids on TV, I've wondered to myself, "Why is it that children (and adults) are so drawn to magic, or the "fairy tale" stories...or to escape to that world of imagination?"

I think it stems from desire. Human beings, in general, naturally have a desire for the mysterious, for the miraculous. So many of us don't see it in our everyday world, so we create it, and escape to it. And, if we really ponder about it, we can learn about ourselves from it.

I think we have this desire for a reason. After all, as C.S. Lewis puts it, when we're hungry, we have a desire to eat..there is such a thing as food and eating....We have a desire to sleep when we're tired, there is such a thing as sleeping. And therefore, we have a desire for mystery, for something greater, there is such a thing as God.

I think being able to dive into a book and escape into these worlds is a wonderful and insightful thing. But at the same time, I think we should be careful to not miss out on the magic and mystery that really is in our everyday world. But the power of magic belongs to God. If we forget ourselves, and not crave the magic for our own purposes and let Him use it for His purposes, we will see that He can use us in His magic...and it becomes "magic for us". We have to "decode" it in our hearts....for it's hidden in the every-day things.