Thoughts on finishing Lord of the Rings
A number of things stood out to me that I failed to make note of, but here are a few that I have...

In Lorien, one of the Elven homes, there is the best of everything except sea. This stood out to me after reading NT Wright's book Following Jesus, in particular the chapter on Revelation. In it he lists the things that will not be present when the Kingdom of God is complete. Within this list he says: "There will be no sea; in Revelation, the sea is where evil comes from." Now I was surprised to read this. I love the sea, having space to chill and breathe in sea air. I am happy to leave that to God though. I was just struck with the fact that the sea is not present in the Elven world and is also a constant pull on the Elves.

Also, in the final chapter Frodo says to Sam: "You were meant to be solid and whole, and you will be." This inspired me - it has the kind of excitement to it that we can have sharing Jesus with those we meet.

Finally I just couldn't get over the similarities between Aragorn "the King who heals" and Jesus "the King who heals."