I might call this season “the summer of fiction” thanks to my new found love and passion: the Harry Potter series.

After a cold and endlessly rainy day I have completed book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. As always, the last several chapters are similar to a time warp where hours fly by, eyes read eagerly, coffee is sipped (or tea, for all those tea lovers out there), and giggles, gasps, and glee is exclaimed in public or private. Thank goodness I was reading at my breakfast table. Coffee shop dwellers would have thought I had gone mad.

I’m enthralled by the whole series. As I took a break to chat with my neighbor/land lady hold a piece of pie (the best pie I think I’ve ever eaten, made by a homemade pie-making guy), one word struck me about this book series (granted, I’m only in book 2!).

Transformation.

Harry Potter, this unlikely character along with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all experience transformation as time passes at Hogwarts School of Witcraft and Wizardry. The story and their character transform through experiences, riddles, and mysteries as the chapters continue. Brilliant, I say. This very journey seems very reminiscent of our higher education system – a time of transformation.

Let’s go back a bit. I mentioned my landlady/neighbor who gracious gave me the lovely slice of apple pie to warm up my day (and my waistline, hehe). She shared about her exciting day traveling to different facilities through Home Nursing Agency and the different services provided to not only the elderly who are homebound or unable to care for themselves alone but also those struggling through grieving, mental disabilities, or emotional struggles. I could tell by the way she was retelling her exciting day that there was something that took all of this home for her. It was the fact that she, a teacher and caretaker, she loves the thing I mentioned before: transformation.

And then I think to what transformation in the Spirit means. Jesus may be regarded to some as a revolutionary, a great teacher, a historical figure, or a honey-browned hair white fellow on stained glass windows, but all these definitions fall short. In fact, just about any word we can come up with seems to fall short, in my opinion. But what touches my heart about this Jesus we read about in Scripture is the transformation he brings. A blind man in the book of John is given sight, an adultrous woman is given a second chance, and the feeble hearts of the disciples are strengthened by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them so that they may reflect His glory to others. If transformation was a business, Christ would be a C.E.O. It’s not just transformation for the physical, but for the whole person. And what touches me most of all is that this transformation isn’t instantanious perfection for being a Christ-follower. It’s this daily process of Christ dwelling in us to restore a broken world to Him. I see this in others, and I see it in myself.

I think 2 Cornithians 5:17-20 says it best:
¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

Not only are we transform but we live and love to relfect a glory of transformation that comes from God! We join in his appeal to redeem creation! We are ambassadors with Christ to live out this transformation! That’s something I can believe. I choose God not out of fear of hell to save me from flames (that are figurative) just to float in cream cheese clouds (that don’t exist or look a think like heaven).

Transformation.

And so I end this little random passage, highly caffeinated, late in the evening, after finishing a compelling book 2, to make one final statement:

Where can I purchase a Phoenix? (Harry’s feathered friend that helps him defeat the Dark Lord). I’m not a big bird fan, but creature sounds amazing!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets