Life of Lydia

“Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” 

Thanks to a C.S. Lewis class I am taking at our homeschool co-op, I’ve decided I need to reread all the Narnia books. I led a discussion of The Magician’s Nephew last week, and this coming week another kid will do the Last Battle, which I listened to just for fun. Now I’ve decided I need to go back to the Wardrobe and reread them in the proper order. 

But wow. I’d forgotten how good this was! All the stuff about the fake Aslan and knowing what to believe or not is absolute GOLD, but what really hit me hard was the ending. I was out walking my dog, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I started crying. Because it is just so perfect and so beautiful.  “as different as a real thing is from a shadow” Ahhh! It’s almost too much. I looked at my shadow and thought how different it was from the real world. To think that our world is only a shadow of heaven? Do you see why it made me cry? Fortunately, Jacques can handle his overly emotional mistress.