The Chronicles

I've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time (I would never have admitted at Traders Point that I hadn't actually read them). I loved The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, was ambivalent about The Horse and His Boy, liked very much Prince Caspian, loved The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, and again was ambivalent about The Silver Chair. I have one more to go -- The Last Battle. Lewis had such a grasp on his theology; at least it seems so from his writings. Often, I too, want to be that sure. I don't know that I would actually allow myself to feel certain about it. Every time I have, it has somehow come back to bite me in the ass.

So I am enjoying the reading of such certain faith and far-flung adventures. It makes me happy that a grown man created such fanciful and amazing places. Reading all the chronicles together seems like some sort of stream of consciousness writing about what God is like and how we should and need to be interacting with God, even though we are likely as not to actually do what we should. There is a bit of comfort in knowing we all slip up, yet Aslan loves us even so.

I am actually sorry I waited so long to read them; and yet, I think I would not have appreciated them so much as now. Because I think I am reading them now as they were intended to be read: as a child. Not as theology or any complicated allegory. They are wonderful children's stories about a God who loves us and helps to guide us. Does it really have to be any more complicated than that? Perhaps our reading of the Holy Scriptures should often be more like that too. I just think God wants it to be simple. Did you hear the word easy? Too bad. I did too once. Not easy, just simple.