The Beauty Spell
I don’t
exactly keep my love for the Chronicles
of Narnia a secret. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is
my favorite book in the world, and even though I’ve read it at least 15 times
since I was in the third grade, I still learn more every time. I started reading A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from the Chronicles of Narnia by
Julia L. Roller, and I continue to not only learn more and more about Narnia,
but also about Jesus. That’s the whole
point behind Narnia. Aslan, who
represents Jesus, says in the Voyage of
the Dawn Treader, "But there I
have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very
reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little,
you may know me better there.”
Today,
the daily reading was also from the Dawn
Treader. Lucy faces a temptation,
contemplates the consequences, but decides to fall into it against her better judgment. You can’t judge a book by its movie, but
between the movie clip and the amazing song, I think you can get a good idea of
what Lucy’s temptation is from this video:
The
questions at the end of my devotion include:
“What do the pictures (in the spell book) reveal about Lucy’s weaknesses? Even as she is tempted, Lucy has a strong
feeling that she shouldn’t say the spell.
Where do you think that feeling comes from? What quality would tempt you as beauty tempts
Lucy?” (Roller).
I’ve
always been quick to judge Edmund for falling into temptation in the LWW, but I was quick to forgive Lucy
even though she too gave into her temptation because the desire to be beautiful
isn’t that bad as the need for power, glory, and respect. But isn’t that what we do with sin in
general? We convince ourselves that it’s not
that bad. It’s not hurting anybody. It’s not like I’m killing anyone or even
robbing them. But 1 John 5:17 says, “All
wrongdoing is sin…” Both Edmund
and Lucy face temptations that they crave so badly they don’t see the turmoil,
chaos, and ultimately death that these temptations can lead to. So to echo Roller, “What quality would tempt
you as beauty tempts Lucy?” and how far are you willing to go to get it?
