Spiritual Lessons from a Children's Book

After completing Prince Caspian, I thought to myself ‘Well, I might as well continue reading.’ So I did. Yesterday/night I read the entire next book, (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). I had forgotten why it was my favorite of the Narnia series.

The scene takes place on a small sail ship which belongs to Prince Caspian. I generally don’t care too much for novels of sailing and such, but this one is different. The spiritual truth that is hidden behind every word will make your head spin and your heart beat faster!

I don’t want to tell you too much about the book because I don’t want to ruin the story for you. But I will tell you this, as I was lying in my bed last night (or this morning rather) at 2am reading the last page in of the book tears were streaming down my face. Not tears like the kind you cry when someone has hurt you, but rather the kind you cry when you realize that you have hurt someone and are truly repentant.

I realized the lack of love, hunger, and sincerity that I have in my relationship with God, not that my relationship with Him is bad (some would say it is good) but I know that it can be SO much more. He desires to have a relationship with me (and you) that we cannot even comprehend or begin to dream about.

READ THIS BOOK! You won’t regret the use of time.

I am starting my journey to obtain a deeper relationship with God; I encourage you not only to do the same but to join me. We can help one another.

If you’ve read or are reading the book, how has it changed you? If you aren’t, when is a time in your life that something as simple as a children’s book has brought you to your knees before the Lord?

Narnia, anyone?

When the first movie in The Chronicles of Narnia series, (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) came out I was really excited to see it. I had never even heard of the books, or the phenominal C.S. Lewis beforehand. After seeing the movie in the theater I immediately decided I needed to read the books. So I set out to Mardel's and bought a 767 page book that encompasses all of the Narnia books. It took me about a month to read the 7 books. Some friends of mine and I spent many hours nestled up by a warm fire reading. After finishing the books, I felt sad. Sad because I wouldn't be going on any more Narnian adventures.

Now the second movie (Prince Caspian) has come out which is actually the fourth book if you are reading in order of which they were intended, not published. I saw it and decided to brush up on the real story of Prince Caspian once again. I finished it just today, the books are an easy read, if you start from the beginning. Over all I had about 4 hours invested in it (but that's beside the point, I'm always getting off track with extra details).

After having read it again and noticing the large gaps between the movie and the book, I like the book better. Go figure, who can beat the literary genius, Lewis?

This is one thing I have been wondering about though: what does the land of Narnia symbolize? I know what most of the symbolic attributes represent such as the Lion, different talking animals, people, etc. but I don't know about the actual place. Is it really a world, maybe the Christian journey, I'm not sure.

So give me your Narnian smarts! What do you think the land of Narnia represents, or does it have a meaning at all?