The Chronicles of Narnia

My journey through this book (or shall we say all seven books contained within this volume) has brought me an experience I have never had before. It is an experience that I hope I never go without for long from this time forth. I travelled through this book with my two oldest children and my reader’s voice. I watched their faces, their eyes, their preoccupations, their dispositions, and their positions as the syllables rolled off my tongue. The story alone unleashes wave after wave of fantastical wonder, but the story together brings a prelude of eternal joys of fellowship that await the children of God.

Skeptical? So was I!

Lewis provides many Narnian ebbs and flows. Sometimes you feel like it is a little dry, and you wonder why he wrote what he did, and other times the delights dance delightfully through you. I especially began to question Lewis as I made my way through the first half of the last book (Book 7). I felt let down as I read this one. The others seemed so much better and more Narnian than this one. I had felt this here and there through some of the other books, but not like I did with this last one.

As I tried to use the right voices, watch my children’s faces, and digest the plot together with them, I was not prepared for what C.S. Lewis had in store for us. He had led us down a dark, but realistic path. My children didn’t seem to be bothered like I was. I kept on thinking, “so this is it...”.

And then, he did it again.

C.S. Lewis unleashed Narnia upon us more than ever.

Maybe...just perhaps...I could have... moved the book a little closer to my face and out of view from my children so they couldn’t see my contorted face. I possibly could have had to stop between words and sentences...sometimes for ten seconds or more to maintain my composure and hold back the tide within my soul. For, Lewis was bonding the fantastical with the spiritual, our reality with beautiful aforementions of our unknown eternity, and displays of Aslan woven together with the majesty of our God.

And just think, I traveled this journey not alone.