The Real Narnia

Today my sister and I watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Once again we were swept into the world of Narnia that our mother first took us to when I was six or seven. My sister rode on Aslan's back to the White Witch's castle. I watched as Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy made their way to the Beavers' dam. The world of Narnia is one that has held the hearts of children for generations. They cry and laugh with the characters that mean so much to them. More than anything, we all wish to see Narnia with our own eyes. Now most of those who read the books know fully well who Aslan is and what he means when he tells the children he has a different name in our world. Yet the reader who knows that Aslan died for Narnia as Jesus died for us and that Aslan's name here is God still longs to be in Narnia. We still want to dance with the fawns, talk with the dryads, and learn to fight with the knights of Narnia. Christianity seems to be so much simpler there. The truth is that it is just as hard there as here. People fall, make mistakes, turn away from the truth, suffer for doing right, loose all they have and die in Narnia as much as in the real world. It just sounds better and less dark in those books because we are not really there. We are observers and cannot easily get inside the minds of the people in books. You cannot understand why Susan forgot Narnia completly unless you have forgotten Christianity. Everything is more obvious in books than in real life. Most of us distrust the White Witch as soon as she turns up in the book. C.S. Lewis made the line between good and evil plainly. In real life it is blurred and covered in a fog. Yet the signs and warnings are the same there as they are here. You just have to keep an eye open for them, or you will miss them. Nothing is spelled out for you as it is in books. The same evil is in Narnia and in this world. The same God as well. There may not be magic and fairies, but there is still a real deep magic, although it is not so much magic as it is power. You can have your adventures and battles with the White Witch and other villains. However they have different names here. The story is still the same though. The world of Aslan is real, you just have to find it inside yourself. Walking into your closet will do no good, the forest with the street lamp is all around you. You were born into it, but today it is called by a different name. I believe in Narnia, do you?