A Road Less Travelled

I just finished reading The Last Battle, the seventh and last of the Chronicles of Narnia. It used to be the one I avoided reading, but now I think it is my favorite. I used to avoid this book because you are given a front row seat of the end of all that you loved. I would give several body parts to be able to live in Narnia and Mr. Lewis destroys it. It is torn apart by evil and deceit from within. The creature’s belief in Aslan is shaken and the Dwarves turn their backs on everyone else. Talking Animals are enslaved and living trees are murdered. It is not a happy beginning. I feel heartbroken every time I read it. Most people I talk to, though, say it is their favorite. Today I finally got it. The wonder of the book is the end. The end of Narnia comes. Or does it? Is it the End or the Beginning? The characters walk puzzled through a land of morning. Where exactly are they? Aslan has run on ahead and so they follow. As they go they find all the bits of Narnia they loved so much. They reach a golden City and are greeted by friends they have long been separated from. They all go into the City and there is Aslan Himself. He tells them that they really died in our world and now they have come to Aslan’s Country. And He says, “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.” The Morning came to the characters and it will never end. Lewis closes this beautiful book will these words- ‘And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better that the one before.’ Narnia ended, but it didn’t. All the best bits were waiting for them. And then they lived a story so wonderful no one would believe them if they bothered to come back and tell us. That is a wonderful ending. I can’t believe I used to avoid this book.