I discovered this devotional this week and wanted to share, as you know I’m an avid Narnia fan:

“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.”1

Could anything be more miserable? Harsh winds. Bitter, biting cold. Dark days that are short but somehow seem to drag on forever. Everything—even time itself—frozen or dead. Nothing to look forward to, and no hope that anything will ever change.

Some of us don’t have to try too hard to imagine how an “always winter” world might feel—we’ve experienced what seems like an endless winter of the soul.

We know that things are not as they should be. We realize how desperately broken our world is—and how desperately broken we are. We see so many people struggling and suffering—and we have struggled and suffered, too. All of us shivering in the icy cold, feeling helpless and alone.

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, / Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…”2

In the Church calendar we have a season to acknowledge the desperate longing we experience—the longing to be set free from the spell we’ve been under, brought from death to life, healed and restored.

“Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, / In the bleak midwinter, long ago…”3

We call this season Advent, which means “coming”—and therein lies the promise: “It will not always be so…”4

Advent is a penitential season—a season when we acknowledge our part in the broken relationships, broken systems, and broken world we live in. We acknowledge our powerlessness to save ourselves or anyone else. As Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, we have a part to play—but we can’t do it on our own.

And we grieve—but “not as those without hope.” Regardless of how we may feel in any given moment—no matter how dark things look or how impossible they seem— there is hope. We are not abandoned or alone.

Someone is coming to our rescue:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.5

Advent promises that our hope will not be disappointed, that this long winter season will not go on forever, and that the spell will be broken. Christmas will come at last— and then Easter!

The Lion of Judah will roar.

And suddenly all the weariness and dreariness of winter will be forgotten, as “the flowers are unfolding in the fields; the birds are warming up their songs…”6

All things will be made new, everything in all of Creation, a Creation “waiting eagerly for that future day.”7

Until then, Advent can also serve as a season of preparation—a chance for us to catch our breath and get ready for the new season, the new hope, new life, new growth to come.

To each one of us, Advent says, “Hold on to hope! Hold on to courage, dear heart! The rumors—the whispers—are all true: Aslan is on the move!”

If you are not 100% sure that you’ll go to Heaven when you die, now is the time to repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you have any questions or doubts about your salvation, click here to learn how you can be saved!

Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions below or you can contact me here! I love hearing from you!

1 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ©1950 CS Lewis Pte Ltd.

2 Christina Rossetti, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” Public Domain.

3 Ibid.

4 The Weight of Glory ©1949 CS Lewis Pte Ltd.

5 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ©1950 CS Lewis Pte Ltd.

6 Song of Songs 2:12, VOICE

7 Romans 8:19 NLT

* Also referenced: 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Romans 5:1–5[JJ1] , Hosea 11:10, Titus 3:5, Revelation 21:1–5

Taken from: https://cslewisofficial.substack.com/p/advent-in-narnia-pt-1