A Field Trip to Narnia

For the last several years, I’ve been a regular visitor to Narnia. I first encountered the land in high school, then took more of a thoughtful exploration of it some years ago, and recently I’ve been giving tours to my children. I’ve found the Narnian air is good for the soul. Have you ever been?

For some people, the obstacle preventing readers from traveling to this land is the fact that it’s a fantasy land. There is no actual Narnia, and so to spend time in an imaginary world is at best a waste of time and at worst a childish form of escapism. But this, I think, stems from some deeper worldview questions which we may be able to settle here. Because, in fact, Narnia, though fantasy, is far more real than the world presented to you every day.

What I mean to say is that the world you are given in the movies, in the science books, in the university classrooms, in the TV shows, on the news; the world reinforced by your government and perhaps your boss; the world handed to you by our modern philosophers, artists, celebrities, and athletes; is a world in which there is no God, no absolute values, no coming judgment, no spiritual realm, no providential hand, and therefore no ultimate meaning. Nearly everything is entertainment, and therefore nothing is real. Our world lives and moves and has its being in nihilism. We are matter in motion, materialists waiting for the sun to burn out.

This, of course, is not the real world. The real world is far more fantastical and wonderful and mysterious. We live in a world that was created by a god - the one true living God. We live in an ordered cosmos, designed by God. The invisible hand of providence is writing everyone’s stories. There is a real King, before whom every creature in the entire universe will bow. Ours is a world swirling with invisible realities - faith and hope and love and honor are real things, and so are angels, demons, cherubim, seraphim. Maybe even giants and dragons. We know there was a talking snake, a talking donkey, and many talking unclean spirits. Are stars angels? Many Christians throughout history thought so, and a case can be made.

In other words, the world God made is much closer to a fantasy world than the one the science books give you. Our scientists act like if we can break everything down into its tiniest particles we’ll be able to finally understand it. But science merely uncovers more mysteries. We can describe what gravity does but still have no idea what it is.

The world handed to us by the moderns is a drab gray, boring, and flat. The real world that God has given us is real, brilliant, and meaningful. But for us to see it, sometimes it helps to read fantasy. G.K. Chesterton puts it this way, “These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.” What he means is that it is wonderfully glorious that apples are green and edible, and it is fantastically mysterious that rivers run with water. But we’ve grown bored. Fantasy can wake us up to reality.

In The Magician’s Nephew, we encounter a bell in the land of Charn that if rung has the potential to ruin a world. Lest you think this too unrealistic, consider that our world had a tree with fruit that could do the same. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a star comes down to rest on Ramandu’s island. And if this is too much for you, consider that a star came to rest over the Bethlehem stable where the Christ child lay. In The Last Battle, the world comes to an end and all creatures are judged by its King, the Creator of the universe. Our world will end in the same way. Which world is more realistic? Narnia, or the one our modern age tries to force-feed us?

In Dawn Treader, Eustace Clarence Scrubb finds himself in a dragon’s lair but has no idea where he is. Lewis comments: “Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon’s lair, but, as I said before, Eustace has read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.”

We think books and stories that are “weak on dragons” are more true, because dragons, of course, are not real. But that’s the modern world speaking. The Bible, which gives us truth and shapes our worldview, is not “weak on dragons.” The Bible is all about how a dragon wreaked havoc on God’s world (Gen. 3:1) and how a Dragon-slayer is promised to save the world (Gen. 3:15). The end of the Bible describes the defeat of the dragon (Rev. 20:2). Watch out for the soul-sucking ideologies of modernism which deny the existence of dragons.

Reading the Bible should be enough to see this, but sometimes a trip to Narnia helps too. Do you want to feel the clean breeze of childlike wonder again? To see the world more clearly? Perhaps a walk with Lewis through the wardrobe is in order. Narnia is more real than this manufactured age.

Eric Durso

Eric is the Lead Pastor of Grace Rancho

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