"Only the Cover..."

Today I finished another read-through of C.S. Lewis' epic tale, "The Last Battle". This is the final chapter in "The Chronicles of Narnia" and documents the end of time and the final hardships experienced by the Narnians and the heroes of the stories. After the characters die and all that is good is swallowed up by evil,  the story really begins. The heroes and heroines of all the past stories find themselves alongside the great lion Aslan as he brings an end to the world they knew.

In a chilling and dazzling series of events He separates His true followers from the false ones and drowns the world in the sea. He calls the stars down from the sky and blots out the sun and moon and erases his former creation. The characters instantly find themselves in a different place: the "real Narnia", or the "real existence". It is paradise.

Lewis really strikes a cord with me when he describes the world(s) we live in as only a shadow of the real thing. It's beautiful really.

What we think of as good and perfect are ugly and flawed when compared to the real thing! God promises us in Isaiah 65:17 "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."

Lewis at the end of his book states that our life here, and all the stories that we live and all our pain and happiness is "only the cover and the title page." When we finally come into our perfect fellowship with Almighty God we will only be in chapter one of the Great Story! It will "go on forever, and every chapter will be better than the one before!"

IT. WILL. BE. GLORIOUS.