My parents handed me Narnia as a story, as allegory – it arrived in my heart as everything. In Narnia, children are seen as worthy of big tasks, important tasks. Their natural curiosity is…
In Narnia, children are seen as worthy of big tasks, important tasks.
Their natural curiosity is allowed, encouraged, never stymied.
They adventure outside the protective oversight of their parents and go skipping in puddles in who knows what park in London – when quite frankly, it had been a pool in the Wood Between the Worlds, that was in no way, shape, or form related to our world at all. No amount of light years of travel could get you there. The only way is by magic. They had stumbled into it.
Later, we find, the only way in is if you are called. I guess I hesitate at that one. Anyone who finds an opening to Narnia is welcome. And to my way of thinking, in our world, today, as adults longing for a glimpse of Narnia, our curiosity alone is calling. If we’re eager for Narnia, Aslan is bringing us in.
Children begin aging when they arrive in Narnia to – I don’t know – sort of an age when they can be seen as kings and queens. The air strengthens them. And something about being given challenges that adults would think beyond their abilities, strengthens them. And it’s not in the more-work-for-kids sort of way. It’s children on an adventure with real risks and real rewards, real hunger, real hills to climb, real sibling rivalry along the way, and yet their best selves blossom in the presence of pure goodness. Pure strength, power, awesomeness, reign, but of kindness – Aslan was good to the smallest animals and the smallest children.
Every great story with kids involved shows adults missing the whole point and kids saving the day. C.S. Lewis kept that going, and then removed all human adults. It was a few kids at a time in Narnia with talking woodland animals. Perhaps not many adults still cling to these stories as I do. The flights of fancy, the escape from intolerable circumstances with a magical pulling you into another world – these enchanted me from the beginning. And, intolerable can simply mean, a rotten day, or a grumbly interaction with someone. Nothing much – and Narnia beckons.
Children are given range to their feelings in Narnia. There is hope, challenge, crestfallen, pensive, secretive, emboldened, mystified, terrified, and restored. Tempers flare and no one is sent to a corner. Children are saucy and impossible to one another and are given the opportunity to grow into kindness. They are learning as they go – they are learning everything. They are in a new land, with new friends, foes, quests, landscapes that are new to them. Every day is alive with mystery and wonder. Imaginations soar and are not thwarted.
For me, to this day, there are the river roads, the sky, the peeks into forests – the little invitations to wonder that present themselves if we’re looking. And I am seeking out those places more and more.
The more the world is terrifying – like when bombs were dropping on England and the Pevensie children were sent away to the countryside – we find a wardrobe.
We step inside.
We leave the door open, for we know that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.
