As a child I remember my 3rd grade teacher reading The Chronicles of Narnia aloud to the whole class after lunch hour. When she began The Magician's Nephew, I was so captivated by the story that I began reading it on my own, before bed; always staying just one chapter ahead of the class so I could hear it repeated the next day. Of all the chapters in The Magician's Nephew, my favorite was and still is "The Founding of Narnia." After reading it again, and growing up a great deal, I was still captivated by the simplistic descriptions Lewis uses to tell the story. His ability to capture so much beauty in such simply constructed sentences is truly breathtaking.
The chapter "The Founding of Narnia" brings us to Aslan prowling to and fro, all the while singing a strange and new song. We soon discover, with each note, another piece of Narnia is literally grown, up from the ground. This chapter also gives us another glimpse of what it is like to be in the presence of the great lion.
Although Jadis shrieks and runs to the trees, we read that the children "could not move. They were not even quite sure that they wanted to...it [Aslan] passed by them so close that they could have touched its mane. They were terribly afraid it would turn and look at them, yet in some queer way they wished it would..."
I find this passage simply beautiful. I struggle to imagine something so terrifying, yet so beautiful. How can I fear something, yet long to look in straight in the eyes (if only for a moment)? I get a strange and, quite frankly, a queasy feeling when I think about this sensation for too long.
I was a very imaginative and strange child (I guess I still am). I remember reading this chapter over and over again, trying to imagine this feeling, and falling short. I'm 20 years old now and still can't. Am I missing something? Does Lewis know something I don't know? Is my faith just not strong enough that I can't discover this same feeling with God? Does this feeling even exist?
If it does, how can I find it?
Many of the Narnian scenes Lewis creates have stuck with me over the years--decades--since I first read them. I'm always glad to hear which parts of the story have lodged in other people's memories.
ReplyDeleteShould we long for or expect to have the same kind of feeling the children had when they met Aslan? That's a good question to ponder, I think. Some folks expect a certain kind of spiritual feeling to affirm their faith. Sometimes those feelings don't seem to happen to us. What then? Abandon our faith? Agonize over the absence of the feelings we want to have? Analyze our expectations and wonder whether we ought to have them? Alliteration! What do you think?