More Narnia stuff

USA Today has a good article today about the upcoming Narnia movie.

I'm both excited and nervous about the movie. I first read the Narnia books when I was about eight or nine years old, when my parents were missionaries to Beirut, Lebanon.

I'll never forget the immediate sense of wonder and fascination that gripped me the minute I started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Many years later, I introduced the books to each of my children in turn, and I still re-read them occasionally.

I love Lewis' depiction of heaven in The Last Battle. Re-reading it a few years ago, I got tears in my eyes as the story impressed on me the truth that heaven is real, and so much better than anything we'll ever experience here on earth:

"'When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world.'

..." 'There was a real railway accident,' said Aslan softly. 'Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.'

"And for us this is the end of all the stories. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

After a lifetime of loving these books, I can only hope that Disney will give them the proper treatment and respect that they deserve. The spiritual allegory aspect of the tales is central and crucial, so it can't be glossed over. So far, it's looking good. We can only hope!

Did you love the "Chronicles of Narnia"? Which book is your favorite? (Mine is The Silver Chair.) Tell me about it in my comments section.