Here is my week-long series on Harry Potter. Click on the images to read the commentary that accompanies the napkins.
Category Archives: Gospel According to Harry Potter
The Good Samaritan – The Gospel According to Harry Potter #1
Dreaming to Live – The Gospel According to Harry Potter #5
Alas, we have reached the end of ‘The Gospel According to Harry Potter’ Week.
In the first book, Harry finds a mirror that allows him to see his now dead parents looking down on him. He is comforted and sits in front of the mirror for lengthy stays again and again. Finally Headmaster Dumbledore comes to Harry and encourages him to move forward in life with the above quote.
In the New Testament dreams play a major role in moving Joseph, the father of Jesus, to take action. He first is told in a dream to not worry about the consequences of marrying Mary after she has proclaimed she is pregnant. After Jesus is born he is again told in a dream that his family is in danger and he needs to leave the country and go to Egypt. In both cases he obeys the dream’s directive.
Harry was stuck in a dream of ‘what if’ and Dumbledore had to gently coax him out of it into his real life. Joseph, on the other hand, was in a different type of dream, a dream encouraging action. He had to decide to obey the dreams or not.
That is the key after all, isn’t it? Dreams, especially dreams of what you want to have happen in life, aren’t really of much use unless you act on them and make them real.
Life doesn’t happen in dreams, life is only imagined in them.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by J.K. Rowling, British author, 1965 – not dead yet. Quote spoken by Albus Dumbledore in ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’.
Some interesting notes on the writing of Harry Potter:
- You probably know that J.K. Rowling thought of the idea for the books while on a train trip. But did you know she did not have a pen with her? She was too shy to ask anyone to borrow one so she sat and thought the entire story out in her mind for 4 hours before getting off the train and getting to a location where she could get a pen and start writing it down.
- You probably know that the much of the story was figured out before she started writing the first book. But did you know she actually wrote the last chapter of the entire series at the time she wrote the first book?
- You probably know the manuscript was rejected by many publishers. But did you know it took 7 full years from the inception of the idea on the train until the actual publication of the book?
Life with Dragons – The Gospel According to Harry Potter #4
I am not draggin’ even if it is day #4 of The Gospel According to Harry Potter!
In ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ Ron asks a rhetorical question at the end of the school year. It’s been a crazy year with death, mayhem, and yes, dragons. He asks, “Do you think we will ever have a quiet year at Hogwarts?” Hermoine replies, “No” to which Ron responds with the above quote.
I was thinking of drawing a scary dragon but I have seen a trend in the story that made me draw a friendly one. What I saw was Harry and his friends constantly being confronted with what looks like an enemy only to find that that enemy is, or could be, a friend. It isn’t true with everyone, but between a villain who turns out to be a godfather (a good godfather, not the mafia type), a giant that turns out to be gentle and creepy skeleton type winged horses that are very helpful we have many examples of an enemy turning into a friend.
Jesus teaches the underlying lesson and it’s quite simple. It’s not enough to love your friends, you must endeavor to love your enemies as well. How does this relate? You can’t love someone or something without getting to know them. Loving from a distance isn’t really love. That only happens when you get up close and personal enough to find what there is to love about the person or thing. It means you forego judgment and take the time to find out what is truly there.
Abraham Lincoln had a great response about this same idea. He said, “Am I not destroying an enemy when I make them my friend?”
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by J.K. Rowling, 1965-not dead yet, British author. Spoken by the character Ron Weasley.
Curiosity – The Gospel According to Harry Potter #3
It’s day #3 of ‘The Gospel According to Harry Potter Week’.
I have a question for the Napkin Kin who look closely at the drawings and like seeing new things. There is something about this drawing that is unique. It’s not about the content, just about a small something I did a bit differently than usual in this drawing. Can you see what it is?
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When Harry Potter looks into the Pensieve in ‘The Goblet of Fire’ he isn’t at all aware of it’s danger. He simply sees this glowing thing while alone in Dumbledore’s office and goes to take a look. It turns out to be a memory machine of sorts, a way for Dumbledore to remember what has happened and what Potter sees in it is important for the story. Dumbledore’s admonition about curiosity isn’t all that convincing in that specific instance but as a general rule it has it’s wisdom.
In the New Testament Paul of Tarsus writes something similar, but within a different context. He is dealing with a group of people who have been freed from a very restrictive set of laws and rules about what is and is not a sin. They are free. But now they need to learn a new way of judging what is good or bad. It can no longer be based on outside rules, it has to be based on something closer to home, more personal. Paul clarifies what that is in this passage from his first letter to the followers in the city of Corinth:
“All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”
In other words, yes, you are free to pursue what peaks your curiosity. But beware, just because you are curious about it doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to investigate. Investigate your own motives and the potential risks before you perhaps fall headlong into a hole.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by J. K. Rowling, 1965- not dead yet, British author. Spoken by Albus Dumbledore in book #4, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.
Predicting the Future – The Gospel According to Harry Potter #2
I swear on the Bible it’s day #2 of
‘The Gospel According to Harry Potter’ week!
One of the hardest things to accept is that we can plan the future in great detail and still have no guarantee it will turn out according to our plans. There are too many overlapping elements of cause and effect taking place for precise predictions to be very accurate.
J. K. Rowling’s story is a good example of that. When she started the first book of the Harry Potter series she had a pretty good idea of the overarching storyline. But then her mother died unexpectedly at age 45. That single unpredicted event caused her to heavily refocus the story to have Harry more emotionally in turmoil over the death of his own parents.
One of the strongest elements of the Harry Potter series is the realistic depiction of what a young person goes through when everything they hold dear is taken away. It allows many who read the books to relate to Harry in a way they otherwise might not have. We can’t say for certain, but it’s very possible that one element was critical in the huge audience response, and IT could not have been predicted.
Jesus addresses this same issue when he talks about the uselessness of worry, especially about the future. He knows that it’s impossible to control the future (and the past) so in his mind it is much better to think about what you can and should do in the here and now, to solve today’s problems.
Read Matthew 6 in the New Testament for the specific teaching. The chapter ends with ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by J.K. Rowling, 1965-not dead yet, British author. Quote is spoken by Albus Dumbledore in book #3 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
