so i’ve recently finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia all the way through. now i’ve read bits and pieces over the years, including reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a score or more times, but i’ve never read them successively all the way through until now. and in fact, i’m rather glad that it has taken until now for me to have done so. i don’t know that i could have as fully appreciated them if i had read them before as i do having read them now.

i don’t think i’ve ever been so taken in by a series of books as i have been by Lewis’ masterpiece. and that’s a rather odd thing for me to say. anyone who knows me well knows that i am pretty much obsessed with J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings and have been for quite some time. but in all the times i’ve read that series, or even The Hobbit, i don’t think i’ve ever quite wanted to actually be in Middle Earth. this might be because i am always kind of exhausted after reading a good bit of LotR because the story is so heavy and burdensome. if you’ve seen the recent movies (but haven’t read the books) i think you can sort of understand that, and can even moreso in reading the books. after all that the characters go through throughout the book’s 1000+ pages, Middle Earth just doesn’t seem like the kind of place that you would want to go and frolic about. maybe if the story went on a bit longer and talked of happier times as it did in the beginning and in The Hobbit, but not after the entire world is nearly destroyed, lots of brave and noble people have suffered and died and the story ends in the middle of “picking up the pieces” (which takes a good while after that sort of ordeal).

Narnia, on the other hand, is not quite like that at all. Narnia seems so much more magical and colorful and lively than Middle Earth, that i don’t think one can help wanting to actually go there. i guess that may be the point, the Narnia books being “children’s books” afterall, but all the same. as i finished the seventh and final book, The Last Battle, i couldn’t help but feel sort of envious that the characters in the books had come to a point where they could spend the rest of their (eternal) lives in Narnia, or “New” Narnia as it turns out. i found myself sort of lamenting that i knew of no such wardrobes, pictures, or magic rings that could take me to such a place and that i’ve never met a faun or centaur or Talking Beast.
but i suppose the biggest reason that i felt envious of the characters is that they get to spend their lives with Aslan, the lion. now if you know anything at all about the Narnia series, you may have heard that Aslan is a sort of “Christ” figure. the series isn’t strict allegory, meaning that every little detail has a deeper meaning, but it is, as the author intended, allegorical in that certain elements do have deeper meanings. Aslan is one of these elements. Aslan is responsible for creating Narnia, for judging Narnia in its “last days”, for creating the new paradisical Narnia, for changing the hearts of the wicked, and is even slaughtered and resurrected.

Aslan is one of those strange characters in literature. one of the kind that just leaps off the pages and, forgive the cliche, into your heart. as i read the stories i wanted to see Aslan. to touch him, to hear his voice, to look into his deep brown eyes. just to be in his presence. it is much the same for the characters in the story. they are all drawn to him. drawn to a lion. one of the most ferocious beasts known to man, a beast that is even referred to in many parts of the world as a “man eater”. it may seem strange then (or a sheer stroke of brilliance!) that a writer could create a lion character that one is actually drawn to. there are many points in the stories where those that are drawn to this lion are questioned. others tell them that it’s not safe to just go up and talk to a lion or even to look one in the eyes, yet one can hardly keep from doing so when in the presence of this lion, even after being told that Aslan is not safe. but though they are told that he is not safe, they are told that he is good and that he is the king of Narnia.

i suppose that Jesus is the same way for Christians (and non-Christians). Jesus has that same sort of mystique about Him. just as we’re told in the Narnia books that Aslan can be the most gentle of beasts in embracing you with gentle paws or giving you a “lion’s kiss” on your forehead, we’re told in the Gospels that Jesus can be as gentle as a little lamb in letting children run to Him and to not be afraid of Him. but in the same set of books, whether Narnia or the Gospels, we also get strikingly different pictures of these two Kings. Aslan can be fierce in punishing those who have done wrong or by merely roaring so powerfully that those to whom the roar is directed are forever changed and cower in fright. likewise, Christ can be fierce in His condemnation of the Pharisees, His overturning the tables in the temple, and especially in His foretold return to earth where He will come in fury and judgment as He rides on the clouds of the sky to the sound of great trumpets and earthquakes. and both strike fear into the hearts of those that hate them, yet are a sight of pure joy to those that are theirs.

Jesus, like Aslan, is not a tame lion. i suppose that meeting Him face to face for the first time, you may not know quite what to expect. i suppose there might be a sense of great fear and trembling, but also (especially for believers) a great sense of peace and calm and anticipation. not necessarily the long drawn out kind of anticipation that we experience here on earth where moments can seem like a lifetime as we await unknowable circumstances. those that are believers already know the circumstances to come. i expect a kind of sudden anticipation that is fulfilled almost as soon as the feeling starts. fulfilled as the new heavens and new earth are revealed and Jesus, just as Aslan does, tells us to go “further up and further in”, challenging us to a race to see who can get to the new Jerusalem first where we will find a feast far greater than any of us can imagine and experience an eternal joy far greater than the most exilerating joy that one could experience on earth.

i suppose that it is this kind of unpredictability that leads Lewis to allegorically say that Jesus is not safe. saying one is “safe” is to imply predictability, ease, and even tameness. but i doubt that any of us will be able to predict (beyond the brief and somewhat vague outline that Scripture gives us) what will happen when we meet our Lord, and thus Jesus cannot be said to be “safe.” but He can be said to be good and the only one that we should call King. and that should definitely be something to long for and hope for.