At the Back of At the Back of the North Wind.

[For the Wheatland Mission Youth Group Book Club]
So this is it. The last post for this book. Hope you enjoyed parts of it, at least. (It was a bit more than I remembered...especially the intrusions by the narrator, which really annoyed me after awhile...so apologies if it was a tough one for you to get into.) Spoiler alert, but if you hadn't been expecting it, the end of the book deals with Diamond's death. And if you've had trouble figuring out just who the North Wind is supposed to be, it is clear from one of the passages toward the end of chapter 36 that she is one of God's agents (an angel?), and she hints that some people know her as Death. (Although she refuses to tell Diamond this name, the last time we see her in chapter 38, she comes to Diamond in silence and it doesn't take much reading between the lines to figure out that she has come to cause his death.)

This subject matter should make sense if we think about the main theme of the book, which concerns God's goodness and the presence of evil in the world. In the story of Little Daylight (which I discussed in my previous post), we saw how God (or at least fairies) can turn a situation meant for evil into a kind of blessing. Not only does Daylight escape the witch's curse at the end of the story, but she also meets (and marries, probably) a prince whom she may not have ever met had it not been for that same curse that caused her to be playing in the woods in the moonlight in the first place!

For Christians, death is not far removed from the idea of God turning something meant for evil into a kind of blessing. Death is something (according to Eve) that God linked to eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3:1-3), and is traditionally associated with the Fall (see I Cor. 15:21; Romans 5:12-14). Yet, after Christ comes, something has changed so deeply that Paul is able to write, "For me, to live is Christ, but to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

I could easily get sidetracked here, so I will try and get back to the story. The final chapter, 38, Diamond and the narrator (who is a tutor he met while living in Kent, after his father went to work for Mr. Raymond) discuss "metaphysics" (which is a term that basically means philosophy).

One of the things that MacDonald wants to leave his reader with is this, the last idea of the book:

"Could it be all dreaming, do you think, sir?" he asked anxiously.
"I daren't say, Diamond," I answered. "But at least there is one thing you may be sure of, that there is a still better love than that of the wonderful being you call North Wind. Even if she be a dream, the dream of such a beautiful creature could not come to you by chance."
"Yes, I know," returned Diamond; "I know."
Then he was silent, but, I confess, appeared more thoughtful than satisfied. 

 These two are discussing whether or not North Wind is real, but a philosopher would read this passage and tell you that they are really taking up a fairly weighty philosophical argument concerning whether or not God actually exists, and the Tutor offers Diamond an answer in the form of an ontological proof of God's existence. If you want to look it up, I would suggest starting HERE. Basically, the idea is this: because we can imagine a God that is perfect, there must be a God that is perfect (that is a really simplified version, but it's not much different from the Tutor's explanation above).

But the reason I love this passage is not because someone offers a "proof" that a loving God actually exists. I love this passage because when Diamond is offered this "proof," he looks unsatisfied.

Now here is what I would like to leave you with: Fancy logic is not a substitute for faith. Reason is the thing that tries to patch all the holes in your leaky boat; faith is what keeps the oar in your hand despite the leaks, aiming to reach the shore. Here Diamond is described as someone who has experienced doubt (after all it is Diamond who asks the Tutor in the beginning whether it could all have been a dream), considered the answers (he tells the Tutor "Yes, I know," after the Tutor's ontological answer), and still remains unsatisfied.

I would tell him this, if I could: "Don't be afraid. The meaning will come with the thing itself."