There’s a place in Lord of the Rings, my favorite novel, where the hobbit Pippin is standing at the gates of the city, and in comes the great witch king, the demon king. He comes through the gate, and he’s about to destroy the city, when off in the distance Pippin hears the horns of the riders of Rohan. They have come to the rescue. Even though the king of Rohan rides to his death that day, the city is saved.

We’re told that for the rest of his life, Pippin could never hear a horn off in the distance without bursting into tears. Why? Because every time he heard a horn in the distance, it reawakened the memory of his salvation and the memory of the one who died for him.