The Most Beautiful of Days.

Over three weeks I have been talking to "my students" about The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This is what I am going to talk about tonight.

The past few days have been really dreary. The have been cold and wet. Well they have been cold of Monterey weather. I guess 55 degrees isn’t really that cold, but it has been something that is not common around here. For the most part I really like the rainy weather. I like those days when I can grab a heavy blanket and get some hot cocoa, or hot coffee, and read. It really makes for a wonderful day especially when I don’t have to go out in the weather.

I remember in January of 96 (or something), when I was still living in Georgia we had the crazy blizzard. In Georgia it does get really cold and it kind of snows but they normally get “snow flurries.” People in Georgia are crazy. If they even some much as see one single snow flake it’s like the land will be covered in snow, and everyone has got to stock up on food. If you walk into any store when it is snow flurrying, you will find there is no milk. Everyone has taken it. Like milk will save them.

Anyway, in January of 96 (or something) there was a huge blizzard. Snow was everywhere, school was closed. It was great. The first day everyone was out playing in the snow, making snowmen and have snowball fights, and sledding. Then we’d go inside and sit by a nice warm fire and have hot chocolate, or soup, or lava. Something nice and warm. Day two was alright. More sledding, and snowball fights, but we weren’t outside even half as long as the day before. Lips began to crack, and bleed because of the cold, and faces were burned by cold gusts of wind. It wasn’t fun at all. And this blizzard lasted about a week. What made it worse was it was after Christmas. When it snows near Christmas it is awesome. There are lights, and decorations, and grandparents, and food, and presents, and music. The snow adds that something amazing. You know it is winter and Christmas is coming. But Christmas was over. It was like hope was sucked out of everyone. Coming inside from the cold to warmth and Christmas smells, and Christmas cheer would have made it all worthwhile. There was no cheer; just boredom. The week was nice at first, but then it was painful. For seven days.

When Lucy went through the Wardrobe, she sees that there is snow all around, and this is odd because on the other side of the Wardrobe it is spring. She meets a fawn named Mr. Tumnus who tells her about the White Witch, “It’s she who makes it always winter and never Christmas; think of that!” In fact the White Witch had made it winter for a hundred years.The White Witch made a counterfeit season that lasted way beyond its three months. I can’t imagine that. I was tired of ice and snow after just three days. 100 years?

Always winter; never Christmas.

At first this seems silly. How can you make it never Christmas? But that is because I am looking at it like an adult. I am not looking at it like it really is. I can somehow be ok with the idea with a talking fawn (or a real live fawn for that matter) but I can’t be ok with it always being winter and never being Christmas? Well once I got over that I realized that a hundred year winter is a hundred year heartache. Blistering cold with no hope for cheer. There was barely enough hope for hope.

But then, after years of short days, and long nights, and not being able to feel the sun shining on your face, and not being able to feel a nice breeze, or have the smell of grass enter your nose, after a hundred years of cold there was hope. Aslan, the Great Lion was returning. The four children appeared in Narnia, and the prophecy was coming true, and everything began to change overnight. Ice was melting, the sun began to break through the clouds; life became new again.

You see, this 100 year winter is your life. It is my life. It was dark and cold and the sun couldn’t make its way through the clouds. It was counterfeit. Always winter, but never Christmas. I felt like cheer and love should show, but even the brightest fires are burnt out in the cold of our lives. And we were miserable in the cold. But Jesus came, and everything changed overnight. This dying world, He brought in back to life, and deep inside I felt things shifting everything was melting away. And after 100 years of cold wind and snow, He gave us the most beautiful of days. Do we know what that means? It means we can hope. It means there is a chance to really live.

Aslan brought Narnia back to life. The very world he was around while it was being made was taken over by the White Witch. But he took it back. This is Christ’s world. It and everything in it. We belong to him although our hearts were dead, and He came and He brought us back to life.