Happy 16th Birthday Catherine Therese!!

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Although you'll never read this my sweet Catherine, I love you. 16 years ago you changed our life forever. All of your siblings have done this in their own way but you have done so in a very special way. You have made me more empathetic, compassionate, and much more prayerful. Your smile lights up the world around you and we are all blessed by it.  It's not easy living with a saint. You remind me of my weakness and limited time on this earth. You challenge me to go deeper within myself and find what the Lord is trying to teach me...usually patience. You are made in His image and likeness but He uses you so that I can see my own beauty, goodness, and shortcomings.  You struggle mightily against me with every bath, diaper change, and wardrobe change. I struggle mightily with Him against all the changes He wills in my life. You depend on me and your mom for even the simplest of things. You teach me to depend on Him for everything and not rely on my on strength. You teach me that I
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Kingdom Divided

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Luke 11:14-23

Over the past few months we have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia to the boys before bed. Although they are too young to appreciate the fullness of the stories in depth, they enjoy them tremendously. They love the battles, kings, princes, talking beasts, and of course Aslan (the Christ figure of the stories). We are now finishing the series with the last book - The Last Battle. Anthony (51/2) has already asked if we will be starting the entire series over again! Dad needs a break from Narnia.

In The Last Battle, an ape named Shift tricks the inhabitants of Narnia into believing that he is Aslan's spokesman. He does this by dressing up a donkey named Puzzle in an old lion skin they found floating in the river. When the king of Narnia learns of this he works to make things right. During his struggle he sets a group of dwarfs free from the clutches of the enemies who were taking them to be slaves. Yet a strange thing happens. The dwarfs refuse to serve the King. In fact, they refuse to believe in the false Aslan (Puzzle) as well as the real Aslan himself. The dwarfs refuse to believe in anything but the dwarfs. The land of Narnia becomes divided against itself as a result of the evil tricks of the ape.

Satan is clever. His name is also Diablo - the divider. God is the God of unity. Satan seeks disunity. He does this only by twisting that which is good and holy into something evil. Like Shift, Satan often dresses up others to appear as Christ in order to lead souls astray. Like Shift, he seeks to set a house or kingdom against itself. Satan wants us to follow the Ass dressed as the Lion, or at least follow the lead of the dwarfs and believe only in ourselves.

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us "Every Kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste." He is showing His contemporaries that their thinking He casts out devils by the name of the devil is illogical. In other words, if Satan and his minions didn't have one common goal, their kingdom would be destroyed. Jesus ends by saying that anyone who is not for Him is against Him.

Like the good Narnians in The Last Battle, we are called to follow the King. We are called to fight the enemy who mocks God. We are called to side with Aslan (Jesus) even though we cannot see Him and in fact have never "seen" Him but only heard tale of Him. We are to press on in His name until it is time for us to enter Aslan's Country (Heaven).

The Devil can't create he only imitates....
C.S. Lewis had a reason for the two lions....
Jesus Satan
Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5) Roaring Lion (1 Peter 5:8)

Comments

Dean said…
Awesome, awesome, awesome.

I've just started reading the Chronicles for the first time (I've read much of C.S. Lewis, and I especially love "Till We Have Faces")and I'm currently on Prince Caspian, and I'm hooked.

I also have my first Child on the way and have imagined reading the stories to him/her as they grow up. So it's good to know that they'll enjoy it even without fully comprehending the entire spiritual background.

Have you been reading it to them in the original series order, or with Magician's Nephew first? Which seems to be the new fashion of the age.
12:55 AM
James M. Hahn said…
My two oldest boys 4.5 and 5.5 are really into it though I often have to stop and explain things. The Last Battle has been the most difficult for them because there is a great deal of abstract thinking needed. It is an enjoyable challenge though, working to explain it to them. Yes, we began with the Magician's Nephew and moved on from there. They want to start again but we are going to move on to some saints books. I've explained that "Aslan's Country" is Heaven in those books and everyone in Narnia dreams of visiting Aslan's Country. In our world everyone is working toward Heaven so now we're going to read about the "adventures" of the saints who made it to Aslan's Country (Heaven) and how we can seek to imitate the "kings and queens" who lived in our world before us.
1:56 PM
Dean said…
Awesome. I was wondering if the story would be understood, and at what age they'd begin to see the deeper meanings of the Chronicles. I am ecstatic and excited to share it with my children.

I was hesitant to follow the new order of the books, but it does seem to be a more coherent way to read the series, since with the modern way it's more chronological in the story.
3:01 PM
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