The Spell Begins to Break...

At times we feel things will never change. CS Lewis is a powerful writer. We were reminded of this part of the story in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

"It seemed to Lucy only the next minute (though really it was hours and hours later) when she woke up feeling a little cold and dreadfully stiff and thinking how she would like a hot bath. Then she felt a set of long whiskers tickling her cheek and saw the cold daylight coming in throught he mouth of the cave. But immediately after that she was very wide awake indeed, and so was everyone else. In fact they were all sitting up with their mouths and eyes wide open listening to a sound which was the very sound they'd all been thinking of (and sometimes imagining they heard) during their walk last night. It was a sound of jingling bells.


Mr Beaver was out of the cave like a flash the moment he heard it. Perhaps you think, as Lucy thought for a moment, that this was a very silly thing to do? But it was really a very sensible one. He knew he could scramble to the top of the bank among bushes and brambles without being seen; and he wanted above all things to see which way the Witch's sledge went. The others all sat in the cave waiting and wondering. They waited nearly five minutes. Then they heard something that frightened them very much. They heard voices. 'Oh,' thought Lucy, 'he's been seen. She's caught him!' Great was their surprise when a little later, they heard Mr Beaver's voice calling to them from just outside the cave.


"It's all right," he was shouting. "Come out, Mrs Beaver. Come out Sons and Daughters of Adam. It's all right! It isn't Her!" This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited; I mean, in Narnia - in our world they usually don't talk at all.


So Mrs Beaver and the children came bundling out of the cave, all blinking in the daylight, and with earth all over them, and looking very frowsty and unbrushed and uncombed and with the sleep in their eyes.


"Come on!" cried Mr Beaver, who was almost dancing with delight. "Come and see! This is a nasty knock for the Witch! It looks as if her power is already crumbling."


"What do you mean, Mr Beaver?" panted Peter as they all scrambled up the steep bank of the valley together.


"Didn't I tell you," answered Mr Beaver, "that she'd made it always winter and never Christmas? Didn't I tell you? Well, just come and see!"


And then they were all at the top and did see. It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harness. But they were far bigger than the Witch's reindeer, and they were not white but brown. And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world - the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn't find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.


"I've come at last," said he. "She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch's magic is weakening."


And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still."


(From The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Chapter 10, The Spell Begins to Break)

Love the Lord your God...

On Sunday morning Maureen reminded us of a familiar but very important verse:

"Love the Lord  your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind."

You can find it in Luke 10: 27, but it is something of a common theme in the Bible and a quick search on Google shows that it comes up in a few other places too!

We then sang the words in this great song by Lincoln Brewster:

As you listen and maybe sing along - take some time to consider and ask God to show you, "What does it mean for me to love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind?"