the Pevensies enter Narnia in the film  Prince Caspian

ever since i was a little girl, dragging ragged copies of paperbacks around like a security blanket, books have been a way to escape: a source of both comfort and adventure.  those of you who share my love of reading know this to be true — there is power in narrative, for in stories we learn of ourselves, of our world …


… and even of a world beyond.


this is what first drew me to  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis — the desire to be transported from the dismal reality of one more boring day of summer break into a world where animals could talk, trees could sing, and  little children could rule entire kingdoms.  my kind of place.


as a teenager, when i wrestled with skepticism and abandoned my faith, it was a decidedly more adult text (this amazing book   — grab it immediately if you haven’t read it!) by C.S. Lewis that led me back to faith.


but when my best friend’s child left this world, it was Narnia — not theology –that i craved.


what beauty in such irony:  that in order to understand the answer to one of the great philosophical questions, we must reach up and pull our childhood imaginations off of the shelf, dust them off, and remember what it feels like to be in true awe — to experience Truth that cannot be contained in even the most brilliant of human minds.


we are called, in all our pride and delusions of self-sufficiency, to become like children.


i found that my beloved childhood stories, in teaching me to revel in imagination, were giving me glimpses of the beauty that we are created to behold.


Lewis wouldn’t be surprised by this.  In fact, he would argue that every single person who reads here — every single person breathing air today — has the same craving.  Not for Narnia — Narnia is fiction.

Don’t believe me?  Consider this, from Mere Christianity:

Think of the things that you crave most here on earth.  You hunger — and there is such a thing as food.  You thirst, and there is a fulfillment for that craving as well.  But beyond the physical desires of the body, there is a craving for beauty wired deep within us that nothing in this world can fully satisfy.


Sunsets painted across the sky, or long, passionate kisses, or the sweet butter-brown dimples of a child — these things may exhilarate us, but they fall short.  They may whet our appetite, but we are never completely fulfilled.


because we are never home.


but Bane is.  let us begin this series by saying what is true:   that we are the ones to be pitied, walking here in earthly shells, where sadness and pain and death seem to loom on every street corner.


but our Bane?  he is home.


[like the words Switchfoot sang  for the Prince Caspian soundtrack]


and in the coming weeks, as we think and pray about that place where he is, let us ever be reminded that the truth of heaven is beyond  what can be said in a blog post.  No fictional place can touch its splendor.  No poetry can render it, for words fall short.  For as it is written:

Though we miss Bane, in our love for him we can never truly want him back.  Not here.


Because Bane is in Heaven … and  Heaven is home.

As promised in Bane’s birthday post, we will be including a giveaway at the end of each post in our “7 Days of Heaven” series.  


Today’s gift?  An all-expenses paid trip to Narnia, via the The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set: Full-Color Collector’s Edition.  Your chance to take your children (or your child-like self) on an adventure through an allegory that weaves heaven into powerful story.


To enter today’s giveaway, you may do any (or all) of the things listed below.  Simply leave a comment letting us know that you have completed one (or more, if you so choose) of the options listed below.  For each option in the list below that you complete, you should leave a separate comment, which will allow you multiple chances to win  — up to seven entries total.  Contest closes Sunday, November 7, 2010, at midnight, CST.  Winner will be selected randomly and announced on Monday, November 8.

1. 1. Leave a comment telling us what your favorite childhood story was — or your favorite book to read to your children, if you’d rather.
2. 2. Follow this blog by RSS feed, Google Friend Connect (in the left sidebar), or by email.
3. 3. Grab our “Where is Bane?” button from the sidebar and post it to your blog or Facebook page.
4. 4. “Like” Banebow on Facebook.
5. 5. Follow keLi  on Twitter.
6. 6. Tweet about this giveaway.
7. 7. Mention this contest and link back to this site in a blog post.

Best of luck to you all … hoping that you will strive to be heavenly-minded this week!