A Thrill of Hope

As it were, and if it were not already obvious, I love to read. I will read pretty much anything and everything I can get my hands on, and if a book is good enough, I will even reread it years later.

Last month, I revisited the world of Narnia, stepping through that attic wardrobe, pushing past the coats of fur, and found myself standing in that wintry tundra underneath a lamppost.

As a little girl, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, was one of my favorite stories. It was a constant bedtime story request, with its beautiful, colorful pictures and alluring magic, talking beavers and epic battles.

However, when rereading it last month, I noticed things I hadn’t noticed as a kid.

One major takeaway from my reread was that the story is about hope.

Hope because “Aslan is on the move.”

But there was another depiction of hope that truly stuck with me.

When Lucy Pevensie meets Mr. Tumnus, she marvels at the world around her; wondering how Narnia could be stuck in a perpetual winter. Mr. Tumnus replies mournfully that it is “always winter, and never Christmas.”

With the arrival of the Pevensie children in Narnia and the return of Aslan, things begin to change within the magical realm: the ice begins to thaw, the witch begins to lose her power, and a seedling of hope returns to the inhabitants of Narnia.

As both of faithful fan of the novel as a little girl and a viewer of the Narnia movies, I never understood the moment when good old Father Christmas makes an appearance.

In truth, I think the movies gloss over this pivotal moment.

But when rereading the book, it made total sense.

For Father Christmas remarks to the Pevensie children,

“I’ve come at last. She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magc is weakening.”

Father Christmas was the forerunner of hope, the sure sign that things were indeed changing in Narnia. He who had been locked out for so long had finally come back.

It was always winter, but never Christmas … but not for much longer.

Thinking about this moment in comparison to the classic Christmas story, it makes sense.

It makes me think of that seedling of hope that was the Star of Bethlehem shining down on the manger scene; the lyrics of “O Holy Night” flooding my mind…

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks, a new and gloriou morn.

The king was coming. The king was here. The king was on the move.

What once had been lost, had been returned. And what had been so far out of reach was finally within grasp.

The coming of Father Christmas into the realm of Narnia was the sign the people had been searching for.

And with the coming of the Messiah, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the world, for the first time in a long time, felt a thrill of hope.

And so, even though this moment in the world of Narnia stands in stark contrast to what the reader was expecting to happen, it is a moment of paramount importance.

Because what the world had been waiting for was finally here.