A Deeper Magic: Lucy's Narnia - 11 Jan 2006
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A Deeper Magic...
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“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a
magic deeper still which she did not know.” (LWW, Ch. 15)
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You’ve probably seen the film by now. If so, then you’ll know that beneath the façade of a delightful tale lays a Christian allegory. If you turn on the TV, read a magazine or newspaper you’ll likely come across a movie review that compares Aslan to Christ, Edmund to the average sinner, or Turkish Delight to our obsession to sin. But is that what "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" is really all about? Or does something deeper await the child-at-heart?
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I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the film. And, inevitably, the magic hit me. But not when Aslan fell, shoved down by the White Witch’s goons. Not when the stone table cracked, either. It was much sooner for me...almost immediately, to be precise. It was the moment I gazed into the magical eyes of an eight-year-old little girl named Lucy. The moment Lucy Pevensie first set eyes upon the wardrobe, my perception of the film completely changed. |
 Lewis' Lucy Pevensie | |
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Any thought or notion of the Christ-allegory was gone. I remembered, to steal a phrase from Aslan, that there is a deeper magic at work.
What magic is that? I can only attempt to see the work through the author’s eyes to pinpoint its excellence. To Lewis, Jesus Christ is not to be explained or revealed in the story, but rather presupposed. Christ and the supernatural realm, Narnia, simply serve as the backdrop of a much different, and in today’s culture, very necessary story. If there were more Lucy Pevensie’s in this world, our enemy the devil would truly be frightened. | ||
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Lucy is the privileged child who first stumbles across the wardrobe and enters Narnia. Throughout the story she is the one sibling who always believes, always defends, and always imagines. To Lewis, Lucy is not only the model child, but the model person. Belief in Christ, defending the gospel, and using the human imagination and creativity are three of the driving forces that appear in all Lewis taught and practiced.
Christ Himself said that all must enter the Kingdom as little children. If you’ve ever wondered what He meant, think Lucy. Think childish purity. Think Dreamer. Think Imagination. Whatever bit of a Christ tale that exists in the story is meant to awaken us to a much larger battle that is waging in our own world, a battle in which, like all four children, we all play a crucial role. | |
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But the problem with our world – the problem with me, to be honest - is that I often forget to ‘imagine’ any greater cause than the Self. Some days I become so consumed with my own little world of 'Self' that I become completely blinded to the other world - the true world. |
To Lewis, Lucy is not only the model child, but the model person. | |
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Lewis’ loveable little Lucy reminds me that something greater is out there. I’m reminded that some things are worth fighting for. I’m encouraged to believe in something outside of myself.
Surely Lewis’ goal is to bring us into another world, another reality altogether. And I’m so thankful for Lucy – would any of this been brought back to the forefront of my ‘imaginative reality’ had that Lewis' faithful little girl not believed what she had seen, and imagined the possibility that others might believe as well?
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Kevin Alexander works as a news videographer in Shreveport, Louisiana and is a contributing volunteer journalist for 24-7 Prayer.
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