Niggle's Leaf

One of JRR Tolkein's less well known books is about a man who spent his lifetime trying to paint a tree. He got so caught up in trying to get one of the leaves just right it became his life's work. There was so much detail to capture in only one leaf.

As he was dying he felt his life had achieved almost nothing - afterall what can be said for an incomplete painting of a leaf? And yet from the perspective of heaven he saw that his work was an invaluable part of a grander story, his part woven into a greater narrative where everything is renewed and his small painting a pointer to a greater complete story. He thought his had been a pointless poking at small and trivial things - but the tree he was trying to capture was both real and grander than even he could imagine.

His name was Niggle - his painting, and the book his story is told in, is Leaf by Niggle. This blog is my leaf, small and certainly incomplete, but, I believe, a part of a greater and grander story that we will only see clearly from eternity's perspective.