In the land of Narnia

For the past few months, I’ve been lost in the land of Narnia.

I’ve watched Aslan sing it into creation, tumbled into to it with Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmund from the wardrobe, fought great battles, talked with horses, sailed on the Dawn Treader, visited mysterious islands, and glimpsed the land of Aslan. I’ve made friends with a talking mouse, seen myself in Edmund the traitor, and found Truth alongside the children and their friends.

And last night, I finished The Silver Chair. That means there’s one more book left in The Chronicles of Narnia and I’m not sure I want it to end. I’m not sure I want to leave my friends. Instead, I’d rather hide my face in Aslan’s mane and listen to him speak.

“You wouldn’t have called to me if I hadn’t been calling you,” Aslan says at the beginning of The Silver Chair. I read that phrase once silently, then read it aloud. And then read it again, more quietly. What capital-T Truth this character speaks.

Once, I thought The Chronicles of Narnia were for children or were so full of fantasy that I wouldn’t like them. But I’d have to say I was wrong. These books are for kids and I’ll read them aloud to my own should I ever have any, but they’re also for adults. Because they help us to see and experience God in a way we couldn’t if we simply set about it in our adult manners and thoughts about how things are done. There’s a reason Christ tells us to come to Him like little children, and somehow these books help me do so.

I’ll start The Last Battle today or tomorrow. And then, my time in Narnia will be done for awhile.

But it won’t be forgotten and it will be revisited.

Because somewhere in the middle of the children’s tales and fantasies, C.S. Lewis helped me to know my Savior better.