06/11/2008
2-2:30 pm
Believing
I don't know quite what happened. I was on a ship to America, to study law at Harvard. In the middle of the ocean, a terrible storm hit and lightning struck the mast. It fell straight towards me, and I remember feeling the blow, but there was no pain. I woke up in a meadow, but I didn't know of any like it on Earth. I saw something fly overhead, in the sky, and it had four legs. There are no gryphons on Earth. Me and my stupid "logic!" All I could come to was that I must be dreaming. I couldn't possibly be in Narnia, since it didn't exist. I pinched myself, focused my energy on waking up; but I only became more and more aware that what I saw was reality. I felt ridiculous for a while, hopeless, even, for I figured I must have simply been going crazy. Then, just when I had run out of ideas barring Narnia, He appeared.
The trees parted, and Aslan walked out to greet me. I grabbed his mane, and I knew it was all real. The memories and feelings all came flooding back, and I began to cry with joy. "Welcome home," He told me. "Surely you are in no state to travel on foot. Climb on my back." I did. We went tearing through the countryside, more beautiful than I had ever known Narnia to be. I saw Beaversdam, though, and the Cauldron Pool, and knew it had to be the same place. Then, Aslan explained about how the old Narnia was destroyed and this was the new one, the real one, the perfect one that is part of His country, where all of everybody goes when they die. I couldn't understand much else, but I knew it was wonderful.
At last we came to a great set of golden gates, and there looked to be a lovely garden within them. Aslan roared magnificently, justly, valiantly, gently. The gates opened wide, and we entered them. Inside the garden seemed to be a whole new Narnia, within the last one we had traveled through. This had already happened once, and I had blamed my excitement for what I had perceived. Here, though, I knew I was not mistaken. At once we were at the steps of Cair Paravel, and in the garden eight figures ran around, playing tag. The Professor and Polly, looking quite young, spotted us first, just before Caspian. Jill and Eustace followed. They ran up to greet and embrace us, which we received openly and returned. Then, the other three spotted us simultaneously and were in my arms in no time. It was Lucy, then Edmund, then Peter, in rapid succession. We stayed like that, all wrapped up together, for what might've been several lifetimes or just a few minutes. Time didn't matter anymore.
When we finally parted, I turned to Aslan, nearly too happy to speak. "How long do we have here?"
His response was hard to believe, but wonderful. "Time is no more. Never again will you shed tears of sorrow. This is what is, and always will be." And it was.