A Dirty Sock: Dobby's Example

You may or may not be familiar with this little guy.  Dobby was a house-elf in the Harry Potter books written by JK Rowling.  If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you most certainly know about Dobby.  And if you know about Dobby, you probably have nothing but good feelings for this character.



As a review, or perhaps an introduction, here are a few things you should know about this house-elf named Dobby.

House-elf characteristics:

• House-elves typically serve one family for life while performing household chores and being kind to children.
• House-elves possess certain powers that even wizards do not have.
• House-elves do not need wands for magic.
• House-elves love to work and serve.
• House-elves punish themselves for perceived failures to serve their masters.
• House-elves are normally considered the lowest form of life and treated in cruel ways.
• House-elves obtain freedom when their master presents them with clothing.

Personal attributes of Dobby:

• Dobby was a house-elf, born into enslavement to the Malfoy family and was generally treated in extremely abusive ways.
• Although most house-elves are quite satisfied being slaves, Dobby values freedom.
• Harry Potter treats Dobby kindly showing that even a house-elf has worth.  This garners fierce loyalty within Dobby for Harry. 
• Dobby's freedom was obtained with Harry Potter's dirty sock. 
• Although sometimes misguided, Dobby uses his powers only for the good of others, especially for Harry Potter and his friends.
• Dobby was a hard-working house-elf.  Rather than accepting employment at Hogwarts as offered (10 Galleons per week and weekends off), he countered with one Galleon per week and one day per month off.  He loved freedom but was fearful of the extraordinary free-time and preferred to work.
• Dobby was brave and was willing to stand face-to-face with evil to protect his friends.
• Dobby died protecting his friends from this evil.

So now you have an idea of what this small, lovable creature was like.  Where are we going with this odd-ball composition you're probably asking?

I’ve been thinking about this for a number of weeks now.  Some conversation or online search or some other unknown exposure to the character of Dobby bounced off my heart and hasn’t gone away.  I’ve looked at this character in a number of ways since and each would probably make a good little lesson – if that’s what these things are, I suppose.

Other influences have spoken during these weeks of contemplation helping me to narrow focus and as a result, one thought has risen to the surface.

Death

Please don’t stop reading yet – give me a chance to bring you through my twisted and convoluted thinking.

The most powerful moment in the series of movies was Dobby’s death.  (Don’t believe me, IGN says so too!  In fact, JK Rawling even apologized for Dobby’s demise!)

Here was a character that sacrificed his life for his friends.  You know – No greater love and such!

But there’s more to it than that.  It was a full life of sacrifice.  It was a life of loyalty and dedication to others.  It was a life we are supposed to emulate.

We make mistakes.  Our intentions can sometimes be misguided.  Many of us are designated inferior by others for one reason or another and many of us punish ourselves for our lack of, well fill-in-the-blank.  This is not typically done physically but inside our own thoughts.

I am always amazed when God ‘appears’ in the most unusual circumstances and here He is, yet again!

Scripture leads us to live our lives in love.  It’s not a set of rules.  If we submit to Our Father, if we love like we are loved, we will desire to live in a certain way.  It’s a way that should be seen by others and even questioned by others.  If we are known by our love, without further thought, we will also

• Be washing the feet of others as we protect the vulnerable,
• Consider our sins to be planks in our eyes leaving all judgment to God,
• Do justice and walk humbly serving as we put the needs of others over our own,
• Take up our crosses honoring all as children of God,
• Giving peace and love as it’s been given to us.

So, in this movie, Dobby dies.  His last words are truly emotional.

“Such a beautiful place it is, to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friend, Harry Potter.” 

And, recently, I heard a preacher say that when he dies, he hopes,

“that the people who knew him best are the people who loved him most.”

Dobby accomplished this as Luna speaks these words over the body of Dobby.

Epilogue  – yes, I think this one deserves an epilogue,

It’s only been mentioned that Dobby received his freedom with the presentation of Harry’s dirty sock.  Dobby spent the rest of his life obsessed with socks.  He wore only the one Harry gave him until others began gifting socks for other occasions as well.

• But, they always needed to be mis-matched.  
• It didn’t really matter if they were new and clean or old and dirty except to say that old and dirty was better.  
• Socks became his symbol of freedom – rightly so.

A famous statue of Dobby is located in the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden, England where Harry Potter was filmed. The reactions of visitors is noted by Screenrant.com.

"No one has really been able to get over the death of Dobby. The bloodied model saddens fans so much that people started leaving their used socks for him as they go by on the tour. Sometimes people bring in clean ones, but a lot of the time, they’re taking the socks right off their own feet. Dobby always wanted to be happy and free, so hopefully he appreciates the small offerings"

Talk of death is hard for most of us.  So maybe I can offer two things to take with you.

1. Live your life so that people will leave socks on your gravestone.  It’s true; they will know us by our love.
2. Stop for a moment today and consider what generous gifts have been left for you by those who have gone before.  It’s OK to cry.  It’s OK to laugh. We can only imagine that for these loved ones, your grateful stories along with the amazing lessons remembered, will be as good as a dirty sock.