where waves grow sweet

Hey, my blog is named after a line from one of the chronicles. What do you expect?

For anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of reading the Chronicles of Narnia, a brief overview…

Four kids – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie – were transported through a magic wardrobe to another world where they took their rightful place as kings and queens of Narnia. Years passed as they gained knowledge and stature, learning to rule the kingdom well under the ultimate authority of the great lion, Aslan. They became warriors, each skilled with a weapon and brave in battle, and diplomats, wise in their relations with other kingdoms. Basically, they grew up in Narnia. Not only that, but they became something beyond what they were in their own world.

But their time in Narnia was temporary and Aslan always called them back to England, the place of their childhood, outside the reach of the kingdom where their royal identities had been established. Here, they were just kids with big imaginations and no evidence of where – or who – they had been. What’s worse, whenever they returned, they found that no time had passed. It was the same minute of the same day they had departed, each situation they left awaited them, and not a single soul noticed their absence.

Although there was nothing external to prove it, they were different. What each child had become in Narnia remained inside of them, at least in seed form. While their royal identity in Narnia didn’t transfer to England, it informed who they were, how they saw life, and what they anticipated. Each time they went to Narnia, a knowledge of their true identity was further established, as was their trust in Aslan and a quickening of their hearts toward the adventure he called them to.

We are living in a very similar parallel… in this world, but not of it. Our identities have been established as kids of the King whom, like Aslan, is not bound to one world or another but moves about freely. Through the Spirit, the King’s version of magic, we are called to see a new world and experience heaven while still existing here. It is there, in that Kingdom, that we see who we truly are and we are changed by it. But, like the Pevensies, we need to work out the truth of that identity in the reality of a world that can’t see it.

Our job is not to go around proclaiming our royal status, wearing crowns and tunics, or even trying to convince people that it’s for real. That will be perceived as craziness at best and arrogance at worst. Our job is to let our lives here be informed by the life and identity that we experience in that other world. To let our thoughts, words, actions, and even countenance reflect it. To essentially be who we are and, in so doing, to extend a glimpse of that glorious Kingdom to others who may be thirsting for it.