I was never one of those kids who climbed trees or rode my bike down hills. I was the quiet kid who sat in the corner reading, and reading, and always reading. There's something so magical about books, there's a whole world bound up in their pages.
The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village. - From Matilda by Roald Dahl
My favourite place to travel, was undoubtedly Narnia. A place where animals talked, where the trees came alive, where children became Kings and Queens...
And then there was Aslan. I never quite knew what to make of him. He was terrifying and elusive, yet compassionate and loving. He quite literally boggled my brain.
"He'll be coming and going. One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down - and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."There's so much contained within the world of Narnia <3 Since I've become a Christian, people have been recommending C.S.Lewis books to me. Not only his fiction, but his Christian writing. And through these books I've been discovering his wisdom :) "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body"
"A woman's heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her."
"I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least."
I can't really explain why, but his writing clicks with me, it makes perfect sense. I feel like the voice of C.S.Lewis has been with me all my life. The author of my childhood stories, the inspiration behind my wild imagination. An imagination that has led to some truly epic daydreams during science lessons...
And now I'm looking over all his work with a new pair of eyes, reading his stories with the same belief he had, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for us. Just as Aslan died for Edmund, then rose again.
"If the witch understood the true meaning of sacrifice, she might have interpreted the Deep Magic differently, for when a willing victim who has committed no treachery, dies in a traitor’s stead, the stone table will crack and even death itself will turn backwards." - Aslan
Looking back now, the message behind these words is so obvious, but I missed it.
There are messages scattered throughout the entire Narnia series.
"Aslan," said Lucy through her tears, "could you -- will you -- do something for these poor Dwarfs?"
"Dearest," said Aslan, "I will show you both what I can, and what I cannot do. ... You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out." - The Last Battle by C.S.Lewis
Ahhh, it is because of stuff like THIS that I would very much like to meet Mr. Lewis, just to shake his hand and say thank you because even now, as I discover other books of his, such as The Screwtape Letters or Mere Christianity, his words help me so much. Help me to understand things I didn't realise I wasn't understanding...
So yes, essentially, this blog post was a gushing of how much I like the writings of C.S.Lewis. His words have been bouncing through my head the past few weeks and I needed to share them with people :)
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else..." -written by....C.S.Lewis of course =]
