Always Winter, Someday Christmas

By: American Decency Staff

 

C.S. Lewis framed his first chronicle, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in a Narnia under the curse of the White Witch so that it was "always winter, but never Christmas." 

I realize that Christmas is already behind us, but right about now, it almost wouldn't surprise me to hear the bells of her sleigh pulling up to my house. I've heard more people this year, than ever, say, "I'm so sick of winter!" And it does feel like it's dragging on forever.

Probably more than ten years since I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, I still discover little spiritual snacks from Lewis' classic children's series. John Piper calls Lewis an expert "likener" for the way that he brought deep theological truths down to a more familiar level of thought. 

I was simply driving home from work, thinking about how it felt as if it was "always winter," when the force of that phrase hit me. The snow and ice and relentless cold is the norm for Narnia. In the story, it is only after "Father Christmas" visits the children that the world begins to thaw. Spring only came with the coming of Christ!

This has me in a meditational mood. Could it be that our longing for spring is more than just a desire for green trees and warm weather? I think so! When I think of the season finally changing, I fantasize about all the things to do outside; I dream out about how things will be different than they are now – better!

But will they really be any better? Inevitably, not long after the weather gets warmer, people will start complaining about the heat, and then the sunburn, and then the mosquitoes, or even how there's so much to do we can't really just slow down and enjoy it! Soon, some of you strange people who like the snow will start yearning for winter, and then we'll be right back where we started.

But, there's no denying that the promise of spring does bring joy to our hearts. As I write, the sun is pouring through the window onto my keys and teasing me with the promise of more, if I can only be patient.

Lewis has another famous quote which encapsulates this tease of spring, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Christ Himself speaks to this as well, when He tells the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The water of this world does not satisfy, but still we thirst!

Fifteenth century mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and apologist Blaise Pascal introduced the now-famous concept of a God-shaped hole:“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.” 

I drove home from work yesterday and drove 20 miles under the speed limit on icy roads with gusting snow making the road ahead invisible. I woke up in the dark of this morning and trudged through about a foot of snow to pull the car out of our garage for my wife and the car barely made it out of the drifted in driveway.

I CAN'T WAIT for spring, but it's the cold of the winter that has sharpened that desire.

As I look at the news today, I see a story about North Korea's horrible mistreatment of its citizens. My email inbox had a video about human trafficking. Facebook shows me links to stories describing the horrors of abortion. I just heard a song about a baby born with addictions to the drugs his mother took while she was pregnant.

We are under a much worse curse than just that it is always winter and never Christmas, but all of that darkness should remind us and excite us for the return of the King.

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