potential plot spoiler

I'm on page 612 and I won't have time to read until about 11:00 pm tonight. Is it possible that Harry could die, but live on as a good Voldemort if Harry turns out to be a horcrux. Could it be that the snitch, opens at the close, i.e. end of the story to be the final horcrux/Harry/good Voldemort? okay I'll quit speculating but that could be an interesting end to the story. Both Harry and Voldemort could end up both living and dying. Or is it possible that the snitch could be a Dumbledore horcrux? okay I'm really going to quit speculating.

page 489

I woke up Friday night...no actually Saturday morning at 12:30 a.m. in my chair with a book on my chest. I had been reading and fell asleep as usual. Since Kroger was having a 40% off sale on the latest Harry Potter book starting at 12:01 Saturday morning, and since we live close to three Kroger stores I decided to go get the book.

So I'm on page 489. It's a pretty exciting part. Someone has just been buried. I want to read more but I'm at the office now so I'll have to wait til lunch.

I like the book. I like the story. Here's my complaint. I don't like the practical atheism that I see in this book that I didn't see in the others. Scripture is quoted but not referenced as scripture, God's name is used but they're not really referring to God--at least I don't think they are i.e. "Thank God you're alright."

A double header softball games tonight for me so I probably won't finish it today but after making it through a rather slow section the story is starting to get intense. In fact I think the scar on my arm is hurting.

who will die?

Two important characters will die in the new Harry Potter book. Who are they? Hermione? Longbottom? Harry? He-who-must-not-be-named? Voldedork? Malfoy? Ron?

I think it would be interesting if Harry and V died. That would certainly end the series. If the author doesn't want anyone else picking up the characters that would be the way to do it. Hermione is a good candidate for death, she would make a good sacrificial lamb and evoke a lot of sympathy. So, Hermoine and Harry is a possibility. From what the author has said it would seem that Harry has to die so I choose Hermione to go with him. I see Longbottom emerging as a hero of sorts in this book, the real prince, as it were.

I can't see any of the evil people dying except maybe V himself. V and Longbottom or V and Hermoine and Ron.

So here's my guess. Harry and Hermione dying, V shriveling to non-existence because of the death of Harry, and Longbottom emerging in some important way.

funerals

I've officiated at somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 funerals in part or in whole. That's not counting the funerals I've attended just as a friend, family member or church member. That's a lot of funerals, believe me.

I think about what my own funeral should be like. After all, I am an old man, I have a stent in my heart etc. etc.

If you have to have a service, and I think everyone should, I think the graveside is the best part of the whole process. I don't mean a graveside service held in a gorgeous chapel with stained glass windows and wooden pews, near the entrance of the cemetery. I like a graveside service where the mourners drive back through the cemetery, under trees, past other tombstones. Mourners stand on the grass, they see the casket ready to go into the hole in the ground, the minister says a few words. There is Scripture and prayer and the people stand there in the sun or shade, rain or snow, good weather or bad, breeze or calm. There is a reality and a finality to the graveside that is very powerful and meaningful and helpful. As a pastor, I know what I would choose if I could only have one aspect of the whole process of visitation, service in a church building or funeral home, and graveside service.

One of the worst things that has happened to the whole funeral process is the internet. Because of the internet, people now have more access to a lot of sentimental death culture literature that is theologically wrong, unBiblical or antiBiblical, Muslim, New Age, Hindu, Budhist, etc. and Christian people don't even realize that the theology is wrong. It's frustrating when a service is conducted for a Christian and there is a proper emphasis on their life in Christ and the hope we have as taught in the Scripture and then a family member gets up and reads a poem that is based on godless philosophy or religions that are invented and perpetuated by Satan and demons. Has it come to the point that Christian ministers need to preview and edit everything that everyone is going to say or sing at the funeral?

Enough on that, but the best thing I've seen a family come up with in the last umpteen years was at a funeral of a man who loved to make and fire muzzle loading and flint lock guns. The family had a detail of pallbearers who shot off a round at the graveside. It honored the deceased and his interests and that is very appropriate along with the words of comfort that come from God's Word.