Whilst everyone has been in the grip of Harry potter, I have been in the grip of the Chronicles of Narnia. I have read the first 3 before when I was a kid, but in the last few months I have decided to read all 7. I have just finished the final one, 'The Last Battle', and i can totally understand why adults still get captivated by kid's fantasy novels! I have loved this series and my kids will definitely be reading it! I have come away from most reading sessions having learnt something simple but challenging about God or my own Christian Walk. The Christian analogies that C.S.Lewis uses throughout all 7 books are so much more obvious and blatant than I used to think they were.
Yesterday I finished 'The Last Battle' and fell asleep thinking of the new heavens and earth, as I had just read C.S.Lewis' beautiful description of the new Narnia. I know he was writing fantasy and wanted to make it as captivating as possible, and if you can write fantasy you clearly have a great imagination, but I was challenged by how C.S. Lewis must have really meditated upon heaven and what he thought it would be like. I am not suggesting the descriptions he used were what he thought heaven is like...obviously he was writing his book on Narnia (although that may be what he thought of heaven). The point I'm getting at is that he clearly got that heaven is so much better than this life, just as his new Narnia was so much better than the old Narnia, and he was able to use his imagination in this.
I was challenged because firstly I don't think about heaven enough, and then when I do my imagination is so limited. I know none of us know what heaven is truely going to be like, but surely there is enough description in the Bible to get our imaginations going and to meditate on how much better it will be? Too often I am engrossed in this life so my mind does not focus on heaven. Sometimes I think there will be things here that I will miss...how small my understanding must be!!
I would recommend the whole Chronicles of Narnia, but if anyone ever needs a bit of help focussing on heaven, in addition to what is already in the Bible I would say read 'The Last Battle' for a bit of inspirationfrom C.S.Lewis.