terb’s world: my thoughts on NARNIA

Among the four Pevensies, I’ve always liked Edmund the most because it is very easy to relate to his story. He started out rough, but was changed forever after Aslan saved his life and showed him mercy. While listening to the Harper-Collins audiobook of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe this morning, I noticed three things about Edmund’s experience that rings true for most of us. These quotes are from Chapter 9, “In the Witch’s House.”

He had eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadn’t really enjoyed it because he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight – and there’s nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food.

How often do we not enjoy doing the right things like going to church or reading the Bible simply because we are doing something wrong? How often do we have the “vague, though uneasy, feeling that [we haven't] been doing very well lately” (quote from The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis) that actually leads us to avoid any mention of God?

As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn’t want her to be particularly nice to them – certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn’t do anything very bad to them, “Because,” he said to himself, “all these people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn’t true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she’ll be better than that awful Aslan!” At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn’t a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.

How often do we rationalize, thinking up of reasons to justify or excuse ourselves, when we know deep down that what we’re doing is wrong? This is because God has given everyone a conscience, and speaks to us in a still, small voice. However, if we don’t feed our conscience with the Word of God and continuously bombard our senses with things that are not good for us, our conscience can be dulled and de-sensitized in time.

“Even as it was, he got wet through for he had to stoop under branches and great loads of snow came sliding off on to his back. And every time this happened he thought more and more how he hated Peter – just as if all this had been Peter’s fault.”

How often do we blame someone else for everything that’s happening to our life, even if we know deep down that it is really nobody’s fault? We just need someone to fix the blame on to make us feel better about ourselves.

These quotes only show how much like Edmund we all can be. We’re also like him in another respect – we are all sinners who deserve to die. Thank goodness there’s One who died for us.