Consider the Lilies

It's been a summer of the richest blooms. 

This year, I watched for the last daylily bloom 

and made sure to admire and enjoy it. 

Of course, lots of years have passed in which 

I didn't notice or care that the daylilies 

were almost gone, and I certainly 

didn't take note of the last one. 

Surely we rejoice that we have a
hope-filled future, brimming with 
unimagined amazements and 
exceeding great joy. 

But looking forward to these doesn't cancel 

the wisdom of savoring what's before us in the now. 

So consider the lilies in your life—savor and enjoy. 

This may be wisdom born of years, friends . . .

since I'll be fifty-five this year, 

I can say things like this. 

For a picture book that will drive 
home the message and maybe 

give you a good cry, check out 

Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury. 

Have tissues at the ready. 

"...The Great Bridge Builder"

This is the most recent audiobook My Youngest and I have finished listening to - the Focus on the Family Radio Theater production can't be beat for this book. (Click here to hear a sample of the first chapter.) The very ending of the story is the best part, listened to not less than six or seven times as we drove to pick up the Big Boys every day from school. I never tire of listening to it, and the words do stick with you. The parallels built into the story by C. S. Lewis are marvelous springboards for discussion - Aslan appearing as the Lamb (John 1:29), cooking a breakfast of fish for friends getting out of a boat (John 21: 9-13), and Aslan's claim to be the Great Bridge Builder (1 Timothy 2:5). Thought you might enjoy reading this last part - I found it here. I've italicized our favorite phrases --- and the last one is the very best reason for introducing your children to Narnia!

At last they were on dry sand, and then on grass - a huge plain of very fine short grass, almost level with the Silver Sea and spreading in every direction without so much as a molehill. And of course, as it always does in a perfectly flat place without trees, it looked as if the sky came down to meet the grass in front of them.

...between them and the foot of the sky there was something so white on the green grass that even with their eagles' eyes they could hardly look at it. They came on and saw that it was a Lamb.

"Come and have breakfast," said the Lamb in its sweet milky voice.

Then they noticed for the first time that there was a fire lit on the grass and fish roasting on it. They sat down and ate the fish, hungry now for the first time for many days. And it was the most delicious food they had ever tasted.

"Please, Lamb," said Lucy, "is this the way to Aslan's country?"

"Not for you," said the Lamb. "For you the door into Aslan's country is from your own world."

"What!" said Edmund. "Is there a way into Aslan's country from our world too?"

"There is a way into my country from all the worlds," said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.

"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy. "Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?"

"I shall be telling you all the time," said Aslan. "But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder.

..."Please, Aslan," said Lucy. "Before we go, will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do make it soon."

"Dearest," said Aslan very gently, "you and your brother will never come balk to Narnia."

"Oh, Aslan!!" said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.

"You are too old, children," said Aslan, "and you must begin to come close to your own world now."

"It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"

"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.

"Are are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.

"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

Good Ol' Puddleglum!

We listen to audiobooks. It's a simple way to get lots of stories in the kids even if they're doing other things - riding in the car, eating breakfast, whatever. In my short teaching career,  I was a big proponent of reading aloud, and I thought I would hold on to this when my own kids came. My husband and I read aloud to one another often, even on our honeymoon. While pregnant with my first, I read aloud to him in utero! While they were small, they would sit for long periods of time (OK, not all of them...) and listen to book after book. Then they got old enough for chapter books - WHAT, no pictures??? Yes, that was the end of Mom reading aloud. I just couldn't stand to interrupt a great story to say stupid things like, "Why did you chew on that?", "Stop touching/hitting/pinching!", or "Could somebody get me a piece of chocolate?" So I make them do an alone reading time - mandatory 35 minutes - 30 minutes of reading and 5 left over for going to the bathroom or other such foolishness. AND we listen to audiobooks. Lots of good stuff that they don't willingly read on their own. It's no work to get your elementary school age son to read Captain Underpants, oh no! They're dying to read trashy stuff like that, but they don't make it very far in the classics, with the older style language. At least MY boys don't. But they will happily listen to almost any story I throw on the CD player! So I throw on the good stuff. 

Recently, we were hearing the Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. I bought ALL the Chronicles of Narnia audiobooks from Focus on the Family - a very worthy investment! No regrets! You can also get them from the local library - free! We listened to the third CD over several times. Puddleglum is just amazing! Not like many people you may know, but certainly all of us know at least one pessimistic Christian like old Puddleglum. In the story, the characters have almost given in to a spell-induced deception that Aslan and Narnia are all just a fairytale. In the pinch, at the darkest moment, Puddleglum comes through with the spell-breaking declaration you find here:

"With his last strength of will, Puddleglum steps into the fire, and the smell of his burning flesh weakens the spell. Then he replies to the witch:

'One word, Ma’am. One word. . . . Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things, trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.'

This, he says, is “a funny thing.”

. . . We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.'"

Now more than ever, I can identify with old Puddleglum! I'm reminded of how Paul describes Abraham in Hebrews 11:13-16 when he says that, "Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one." The Christian life that we lead, the Biblical code that we follow, and the hope that we have in Christ may seem like a play world to others, but we must press on and live like "Narnians" and spend our lives looking for "Overland".

More great resources on Narnia, if you're a fan like me:  Narnia and the Bible a website,  Live Like a Narnian blog, and "Green Dust" article in World Magazine