“I thank my God in all my remeberance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of you partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ…And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,”

Philippians 1:3-6, 9 (NLT)

LETTER 310

Rayner Unwin was an English publisher, serving as the chairman of the publishing company George Allen & Unwin, founded by his father, Sir Stanley Unwin.

In 1936, the company was considering a manuscript written for a youthful audience. The senior Unwin believed in allowing children to read manuscripts before agreeing to publish them, as a way to gauge their potential for success. In this instance, he decided that his 10-year-old son Rayner was the man for the job and asked him to read it.

This manuscript in particular was from an unknown author, but Rayner immediately fell in love with it. In his written review to his father, Rayner highlighted the mythical landscape built by the author—featuring goblins, dragons, and wizards—saying, “With the help of maps, this book needs no illustrations and should appeal to all children aged 5 to 9.”

So, with the encouragement of his son, Stanley published the book, titled The Hobbit, which became a success and brought author J. R. R. Tolkien his first major recognition. Tolkien and the younger Unwin went on to develop a unique friendship, with Rayner eventually becoming a primary source of feedback for Tolkien’s later series, The Lord of the Rings.

Years later, Rayner, now the chairman of the company, had a daughter named Camilla who came home with an interesting school assignment. She ended up writing a letter to her father’s friend, Tolkien, seeking an answer to the question: “What is the purpose of life?”

A weighty question for anyone to answer, Tolkien took his time to respond to young Camilla but ultimately produced a beautifully written letter, known as “Letter 310” in the published Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, which highlights his correspondence with various people over the years. In that response, Tolkien posed deeply rich philosophical ideas around God and expressed his belief that true purpose can only exist through faith in Him.

Tolkien then wrote:
“So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase, according to our capacity, our knowledge of God by all means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.”

We discussed thankfulness on different levels this past Sunday, and according to the famed author, our purpose for living is to be in constant praise and worship of our Creator, devoting everything we have to showing praise and thanks. What a beautifully humbling sentiment!

We each have much to be thankful for, so let us show it in praise to the only One worthy of it—making it our chief purpose today.

Lee Wilson and his wife, Deanna, have been NorthStar Church members since 2010. They are parents to Everett, Henry and Roselyn. Lee is passionate about sports (Go Braves, Go Dawgs) and has the pleasure to serve on the worship team as a bassist.