Let The Holidays Begin

C. S. Lewis was such a wonderful writer and storyteller. This morning I discovered a delightful detail of beauty he included in The Chronicles of Narnia.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the narrator tells us when the children—Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy—heard Aslan's name spoken the first time each one felt something jump in his inside. "Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer" (chapter 7).

And, of course, those initial feelings proved to be significant in the story. Edmund was, by that time, loyal to the White Witch. So he had accepted the Witch's animosity toward the Lion. Peter became brave and adventurous in this story and throughout the series. Susan received the numinous quality of Aslan that she ultimately lost. Lucy's reaction was an inkling of the joy and satisfaction she would know "in Aslan" in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Yet, Lucy's reaction was also an inkling of ultimate joy, for near the end of The Last Battle Lucy says to Aslan, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often." Aslan assures Lucy and the others listening that he will no longer send them back to their world. "No fear of that. Have you not guessed?" The narrator comments, "Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them." So Aslan tells them, "There was a real railway accident. Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream has ended: this is the morning."

After seven stories and several years of writing, did Lewis remember Lucy's initial response to Aslan? Did he include it purposefully in The Last Battle to provide symmetry? We don't know. Perhaps that detail was part of the inspiration Lewis was under as he wrote the Chronicles. Whatever happened, I am grateful for that little stroke of beauty in the tapestry.

More than that, I am grateful that this beautiful detail will be true for us when Lord Jesus Christ brings this world to an end and takes us to our new home, the new heavens and the new earth. The term will be over: the holidays will begin. The dream will end: it will be the morning.