The Call From Narnia

A reflection on Narnia, everyday life and God's call from eternity.

By Heidi Knofczynski

CCC 30, “Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.” Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, “an upright heart,” as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

"It started out as a feeling,..." 

Our family recently watched Prince Caspian on our weekly movie night, and I guess I was in one of those nostalgic moods, because as I was watching the ending, and as the theme music was swelling, I was transported back to my childhood days.  Days when I deeply longed to find the portal that would take me to Narnia, or some other wonderful world.  A place where I could not only see wonders, but be a part of them.  A place I was certain existed in my heart, though I had no way to access it.

and then turned into a quiet hope..."

Then came Junior High, and it was in that time that I learned that what I really should long for was to be popular and to not make a fool of myself.  (In Junior High you make a fool out of yourself by divulging that you have spent more than a few afternoons sitting in your grandmother's closets --she had the closets with the best prospects for adventure-- hoping beyond hope that a door would open up on a world where heroism and valor, beauty and great love were things that could be attained in actuality and not just in the imagination.)  Very quickly I moved on to more rational, down-to-earth, and attainable pursuits. I focused my longings, even my spiritual ones, on things that could be found "under the sun." These worldly things pretend to be just as wondrous and, all to often, seem to be all there is to satisfy deep longings.  They stifle the call of eternity. Then adulthood comes and duties and responsibilities shrink our hopes even more.

I have seen the business that God has given to mortals to be busied about.  God has made everything appropriate to its time, but has put the timeless into their hearts so they cannot find out, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.  Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 

"which then turned into a quiet thought..."

How quickly timeless yearnings in our hearts are diverted!   I know that much of our daily life is made up of mundane and often dreary duties, (I am doing laundry and changing diapers as I am writing this so, believe me, I know!) but even in the midst of this concrete, material world every one has moments when you know there is something more.  What do you do when that little feeling of God's wonder and mystery tugs at your soul?  Respond to it!  Even for just a second acknowledge that you are being called to place you deepest hope in eternity, to hunger for it -- to believe in it!

"which then turned into a quiet Word..."

I may have stopped searching in closets for Narnia, but I am grateful that I never completely could shake the feeling of being out of place in this world, or else I may have ignored my longing for that wondrous world.  Because occasionally that yearning becomes a sharp pang, a joy unfulfilled, calling me toward it, but remaining just outside of my grasp.  All I have to do is sit in my backyard and hear the cottonwood tree whispering in the breeze and see it’s leaves magnificently sparkling in the sunlight and I feel that I am sitting on the edge of a profound assembly. Like that tree and all of nature are hearkening to a call, a call that I feel but I cannot hear with my ears. For a moment I am lifted up in spirit to a place where time does not hold me captive and wonders are poured out eternally.

My backyard cottonwood tree

The heavens proclaim your wonders, O Lord; the assembly of your holy ones proclams your truth.  For who in the skies can compare with the Lord or who is like the Lord among the sons of God?  Psalm 89 

"And then that Word grew louder and louder..."

But just as quickly I find that I am still just hoping, yearning, hungering and mourning -changing diapers, doing laundry, worrying about this, that and everything else under the sun.  Was that a siren song I was lost in? There is a real pain in re-entering the world under the sun when you can feel such wonders at hand. Maybe that is why, as our movie concluded, I could hardly hold back my tears, as the High Kings and Queens of Narnia went back through the door back to their ordinary, anonymous lives. No longer known as kings and queens, no longer fighting great battles or rejoicing in their victories.  No longer in the presence of Aslan. They are caught back in the quickly flowing time of this mundane world.

 "until it was a battle cry!" 

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor,for the Kingdom of God is yours.  Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Luke 6: 20-23

How wonderful the sound of Jesus’ words are! He is answering the unanswered pondering of the preacher in Ecclesiastes who has nowhere but under the sun to place his hopes.  His words reassure us not to ignore the eternal yearning in our hearts, they are His call.  His battle cry alerting those who hear them to fight the false hopes of this world and look to Him for true hope. Eternal hope. You and I are being called to the great assembly that rejoices in Him as He rejoices in you!  Let it grow into a battle cry that each one of us proclaims!

How is God calling you?

Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example

for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. 

To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,

honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:17

The sub-headings for this post were taken from the first verses of the song "The Call", by Regina Spektor.  The song can be found on the Prince Caspian soundtrack.