Friday, April 29, 2011

Shadowlands

From C. S. Lewis' The Last Battle:
"When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and will always be here; just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or a waking life is from a dream.”
So…, about 3 months back, when we had a bitter cold snap I wore a hat to work; a cowboy hat, for many reasons: I own several, I think they look good on me, they keep my head warm and of course because I am yet a cowboy.

Here in Central Texas the weather can change rather rapidly and as circumstance would have it, by late morning of one day the temp had warmed up quite a bit, the wind had quit blowing and the sun was shining. I had bundled up leaving the shop going to the Post Office and by return had shed my coat and was wearing only my hat. Walking back from my pickup I noticed my shadow. ‘Twas a bit of an epiphany.

At 63 years old (or young depending on my point of view at the time) I’m still six foot tall though I carry several pounds more than “back in the day”. And in my mind, I regard myself as that youth of 20 something, still able to do anything I could back then. Before the ravages of time I wasn’t so bad lookin’, either.

Anyway, glancing at that shadow, I realized I had seen not who I am today but rather that cowboy of years ago, tall and thin, “cool”, your typical “Marlboro Man”, able to achieve admiring glances from all who beheld him. And I thought: “Wow, that’s really how I would like to picture myself back then”; and thought also, in my understanding, how it might be one day in the future. When we finally get to “the real Narnia” and become all that we were created to be, individual in our selves but united in our love for God, each other and His “real” Creation.