Deuteronomy 30:19-20

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Call - Lucy and Aslan

Prince Caspian was released on DVD last week, and of course I went out and bought it immediately. Now I have previously stated in other posts my thoughts on this movie, both the positives and the negatives, and you can see that in the movie section on the right side of this page. But this post is not about the movie itself. Instead, I want to specifically comment on one of the songs that they included in the movie that I feel fits so well. This song is "The Call" by Regina Spektor:

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry
I'll come back
When you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye

You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye

I loved this song when I heard it for the first time in the theater. It seemed to fit the movie perfectly. And now that I have seen the movie several times since and read these lyrics, I think it is a perfect fit for Lucy at the end of this book/movie. Lucy is leaving Narnia for the second time, hoping again that she will one day return. Aslan almost assures her that she will be needed again, and she feels like she will be making a third visit to Narnia. Through this song, it seems like Aslan telling her to wait for his call, and then she will be able to return. What a powerful message if Aslan is related to God! Wait on God's timing in life.

The song then talks about change. With Lucy returning to England, life will once again change, returning back to her normal life in England. But change can be good, even if things are hard. The song suggests some hard times (war). The series was set in and after WWII, so again the song seems to tie in well with the book. The part about looking to a star seems off if considering Christianity, but it does allude to the light. Jesus is the light, and this could be seen as Aslan encouraging Lucy to look to the light as she goes through her next stage of life.

Finally, there is an encouragement to hold on to the feelings of Narnia. Those around Lucy and her siblings will not know how they feel about Narnia. They do not know what Narnia is or how it has affected these children. But that does not mean that the children have to forget their memories. Aslan encourages them to hold on to the memories of Narnia, not forgetting the lessons that they have learned. Also, this seems to connect with Susan, who at the beginning of the movie was letting go of her Narnia feelings (not in the book from what I recall). But later in the series (book form), Susan does forget about Narnia as she gets caught up in worldly affairs. Lucy is encouraged to hold on to those memories as she awaits for her call back to Narnia.

I really like this song. It seems to have been written in light of the Narnia series, but it may not have. If it wasn't, then there are a lot of connections that can be made regardless. Just like this song, The Chronicles of Narnia have a lot of lessons that we can learn. The children that travel to Narnia go for a purpose. Not only do they help those in need in Narnia, but they are taught various lessons themselves. And once they have learned all that they can, they are sent back to their own world to put those lessons into practice. May we take the lessons that we hear from God and put them into practice in our life, just as these children have.

Matt

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