journey through Narnia...

I know I know... why pick Narnia to read? Well, it is on the top 100 list (for those who don't know the Top 100 list yet go back to my first blog and catch up) and for good reason. And although I have already read the book several times and have seen the movie several times it seemed like a logical choice. Santa is in Narnia after all.

After what I think was probably the coldest night of the winter so far in Columbia, it got me to thinking, why do I love winter so much? I don't particularly like being cold, although I do love being bundled up with hot Starbucks coffee... I don't like waiting on my car to defrost in the morning... I don't like heat bills in the winter... Yet, I love the winter.

I think the answer is obvious. My favorite holiday is in the winter. What would Christmas be like in hot weather? Any Floridians out there want to take a shot at that? Christmas just comes with cold, snow, ice, Frosty, Hot Chocolate, etc.  Christmas would not be the same without winter. Nor would winter be the same without Christmas.

Lucy finds this out in C.S. Lewis' famous classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As Lucy discovers Narnia for the first time and enjoys tea and sardine toast with Mr. Tumnus, he shares with her three times in the second chapter of the book that Narnia is a place of winter all the time without Christmas. Now, I don't think Tumnus was just talking about freezing cold with no gifts, hot cocoa or candles. Tumnus was referring to a much greater spiritual reality in Narnia. Narnia was a place overtaken by the White Witch with no hope of ever experiencing life again.

Can you imagine a world without hope? Can you imagine our lives without hope? This Christmas season... spend time thanking God for the hope that is found only in the Incarnation of Jesus... and enjoy the winter... knowing full well that Christ comes and brings life again!  

journey through grief...

A favorite pastor of mine used to always challenge his congregation to never look at your circumstances and derive God's character from them... but to always filter your circumstances through the lens of what you know God's character to be. What a true statement. And yet what a difficult thing to do. Our minds are so great at creating images and ideas of what we want or think God to be and if we allow these images and ideas to be created by our circumstances we will have created a god that is the figment of our imaginations, not the God of the Bible. C.S. Lewis learned this the hard way.

The tragedy that was cancer taking his wife's life caused him to question his belief in and idea of who God was. He testifies that God constantly ruined all of his previous thoughts of who he thought God was and/or should be.

He writes in a Grief Observed, "My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins. And most are 'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not. But the same thing happens in our private prayers..."    

What images or ideas do you have of God?
Are they consistent with Scripture's expression of God?
Have you ever thought that the Incarnation, what we are celebrating even this month, is a chief example of God completely shattering your images and ideas of Him?
And have you ever thought that when God does shatter those images and ideas it could just be a sign of His presence in your life? 

Ask God, not for greater understanding this season... but greater faith... to accept Him for Who He is in simple trust... even if circumstances would try and communicate otherwise.