In the House of Tom Bombadil

by C.R. Wiley

Bombadil was able to reign over his land and have command of it through proper spells, taming it. No Bombadil existed for the outskirts of Mordor, however, and the land became so corrupt as to become nearly irredeemable, except through an act of God, perhaps by letting the ocean wipe it clean in a new flood.

I think it is safe to conclude that Professor Tolkien didn’t want children to grow up into the sort of people who read stories looking for preaching. Instead he wanted children, as well as adults, to be taken up into stories, to experience the wonder, the mystery, and even the terror that can be found in them.

And yet, balls can be admired and even talked about without cutting them open.

Cutting balls open totally ruins hollow balls like tennis balls but only partially ruins baseballs.

Jesus said that even Satan keeps an ordered house (Matt. 12:22–28). But it must ape another rule of order, because evil by definition can’t make anything good; it can only corrupt good things that have been made by someone else.