The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Elsje and I read through this together, and it was Elsje’s first time through Narnia. Needless to say, we really enjoyed it (though there’s debate on who enjoyed it the most).
One thing I’d forgotten/missed is that when Lucy gives Edmund the cordial, Lewis tells us that this restored Edmund not just from his injuries, but to his “real old self again”. It is a beautiful allusion to the work of salvation that makes us most as God intended us to be.
The other section that I found particularly lovely (this go round), was Lewis’ description of Aslan blowing on the statues and bringing them to life. He breathes and for a while nothing seems to happen. But slowly and surely, as Lewis puts it, like a flame creeping over a paper, the statue went from cold, stony and lifeless to vibrant, alive and “itself” again. A rather Calvinistic moment, I’d say! When God breathes life into a soul, it may seem still hardened to the Gospel, but the regenerative work has begun and will not falter nor fail, until He redeems that lost soul and restores it to himself.
