When I was little, my favorite activity was time travel. I always longed to be transported by books and movies, to lose touch with reality for just long enough. All the way up through high school, when I needed an escape, all I had to do was crack the cover of a beloved novel and jump into another world.
If you have known me for more than a week, you’ll know that my favorite series of all time is C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Leaving a world that didn’t satisfy for another one of wonder, beauty, and a Savior spoke to me in ways I didn’t even understand as a six-year-old. My family moved from Raleigh, North Carolina to the Outer Banks when I was in sixth grade, and my sister and I were homeschooled until my sophomore year of high school. I didn’t really have many friends except for a few girls at church. Even entering my public school in 2013, I knew next to no one, and joined extracurricular theatre for a creative outlet and to make new friends. Over the course of the next few years, I still seemed unable to shake the status of the new girl. I was left out, uninvited to Friendsgivings and New Year’s parties, and one night I remember crying myself to sleep because I felt so alone, which completely contrasts my usual, optimistic, joyful self. Senior year, I was working on a Creative Writing project one night in my room, listening to a Bethany Dillon CD, when the last line of a song caught my attention. This line, “I’ve always known this wasn’t home”, was repeated over and over, and it didn’t take long for me to break down. I realized that the reason I felt so alone, the ache I felt in my soul that this world at every turn is leaving me dissatisfied, is because I, as well as the rest of humanity, was created for another world. We were designed to spend eternity in Heaven with The Lord, and because of the fall, humanity separated itself from His Will. But the story doesn’t end there. God loved us so much that He acted on our behalf to fix our mistake; He sent Jesus to leave the perfection of Heaven to come down to our broken earth to save us. He sacrificed everything so that when we stand before God one day, if we believe that Jesus covered our sin completely and took all our blame in exchange for His righteousness, all will be set right again and we’ll spend eternity with Our Father. If you run towards Him, you do not have to ever worry about rejection. He’s been chasing after you your whole life, and His greatest desire is that you would stop running, turn around, and take His hand. He doesn’t pick and choose based on background, social hierarchies, or mistakes. Our culture has become one that thinks God is like Christians, who, because of our human nature, can be petty, rude, and holier than thou. We as a Church should be striving wholeheartedly to make sure we are living like Christ by loving everyone, in every way we can. Narnia was the story that touched my life, the story that still gives me a greater understanding of salvation and the beautiful ideas that surround it. I write so that my stories may be that for another child. I dream that I can publish a series that impacts a new generation, and even if it is only loved by one little girl, who relates to a protagonist struggling to find her identity and her home, and that little girl comes to know Jesus, the past five years of writing and editing (as well as how many more are left) will be worth it. “Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek...And since then, O Kings and Ladies, I have been wandering to find [Aslan] and my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog.” – Emeth, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle
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AuthorI am a September baby, which may be the root of my love for fall. I love dark chocolate, popcorn, and I do actually like brussel sprouts. I'm the kind of person that listens to a Christmas song in September. (But only one. I don't want to ruin the ~magic~). Archives
May 2019
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