Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Lessons from Narnia

I just loved reading, "The Chronicles of Narnia" when I was a kid. I think I loved sharing these books with MY kids even more. When the movie came out I was so thrilled to see that they did such a good job with it. I hear tell that they are making the next movie in the series, Prince Caspian, and it is due out next year. We can't wait!

I learn so much from Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is a wonderful movie/book. It is about a family of 4 children that find themselves in the land of Narnia. They are the fulfillment of an age-old prophesy in which Aslan, the ruler of Narnia, will defeat the resident evil, the White Witch. The 4 children are to become the Kings and Queens of Narnia, but one of the four goes astray and joins up with the Witch. He betrays his family and all of Narnia. According to the laws of Narnia, all traitors belong to the Witch, and she has the right to kill them. Aslan, blameless and perfect, chooses to allow himself to be sacrificed and killed in Edmond's place. He is resurrected and defeats all evil, restoring Narnia to the wonderful peaceful land it used to be.

The imagery in this movie (and book) are intended (by the Author C.S. Lewis) to represent Biblical figures. Aslan is Jesus, the Witch is the devil. Edmond, the traitor represents you and I. We are born in sin and deserve death, traitors of God. We sin against Him every day. We live for ourselves, turn our backs on God and deserve death. Jesus, blameless and perfect chose to allow himself to be sacrificed and killed in our place. We, like Edmond, do not deserve to live. Jesus and Aslan certainly did not deserve to die. But LOVE prevailed, and oh what love. All throughout the book Edmond was selfish, hateful, spiteful, you name it. He was very hard to like. It was easy to see him being enticed by the "dark side" and, it would seem right to see him get what he deserves. But that is not how Aslan thought, not at all. He didn't recite all the wrongs Edmond had done. He didn't make sure that Edmond knew how unworthy he was, Aslan simply chose to die in Edmond's place.

What is so cool is that the witch was very powerful in this movie/book. She was self-confident and no one else was ever able to defeat her. She was no match for Aslan, though, no matter how powerful she was. He took her out with no effort at all when He decided the time was right. Once He defeated the witch He restored all the creatures that were turned to stone by the witch and healed all the wounded. He put the children on the thrones of Narnia, then left to allow them to rule in justice and peace. He is coming again, are you ready?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love these books too. The making of the movie sparked a new interest in my students so I read them to my second graders. They love them too!

DebbieP said...

Did you know that there is an audio version of the books as well? I think Focus on the Family sells it. We borrowed it from a friend and they were wonderful.