Earlier in the year, my eldest sister and her son, Patrick, visited and stayed with us for about a week and a half from Melbourne. Because we had spoken about it previously, hubby took Patrick and the two boys to the movies to watch Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movie was part of a sequel, but we've never seen any of the prequels, so we hired the old ones. And we enjoyed them immensely: the enthralling plot, excellent special effects, exciting scenes, lovable characters and breathtaking landscape made for a truly engaging cinematic experience, both for the young and the old.
Well, apart from the wonderment experienced from watching the movies, it seems our household has officially caught Narnia fever. Our kids have been swept up in it for quite some time now. They cannot stop talking about the characters, role-playing, reenacting particular scenes, etc. In fact they've each assumed a character in the movie, i.e. Webster is Peter, Roadrunner is Edmund, Curlytop is Susan, Brighteyes is Lucy, and even Bobbles is referred to as Prince Caspian! For a time, LL got into it, too and coming home from the office, he would bring back some Turkish delight for the kids, but only 'til they got tired of the sticky stuff. :)
Being the opportunist that I am (well, at least when it comes to the kids' learning), I just could not pass this opportunity up to milk some sort of benefit out of it. So we reviewed the movies and discussed how the self-sacrificial love by Aslan, his death and coming back to life and the events in the land of Narnia thereafter was an analogy to Christ's Passion, Death, Resurrection and the redemption available to His disciples who persevere in following Him. It was also a noteworthy parallel that the witch, all dressed in pure white and offering treats is much like Satan who always presents himself looking like a good, harmless being, constantly luring us into a sinful life with sugarcoated temptations.
Also, I thought I'd strike while the proverbial iron is hot, and take advantage of this phase; so I jumped online and ordered Narnia books! I found a handsome leatherbound blue "Chronicles of Narnia" hardback book and several "I Can Read" - Level 2 versions of the different chapters of the story for our developing readers. I was also very happy to have found a 7-volume Chronicles of Narnia full colour boxed set which were equally attractive to our Narnia enthusiasts. Great addition to our growing library, indeed. When our books finally arrived the kids beamed with wide-eyed amazement. Days later the children are still reading them, and the books are a constant feature in read-alouds by the bigger to the littler kids. Besides, I don't think a book report or two and some reading comprehension exercises would do my students any harm, do you?
Whilst we normally refuse to let secular movies have too much of an impact on our kids, Narnia is one of a few exceptions. And, just like most movies that come out of Hollywood, I was initially skeptical and hesitant about letting them get caught up in it at all. But having seen the movies, and having appreciated the parallelism it had to our Christian tenets, we have become quite tolerant and even supportive of this Narnia preoccupation that the children currently have. Besides, like everything when the novelty wears off, I'm sure this will be another one they'll eventually get over or outgrow. For now, we will take comfort in the fact that the Narnia movies/stories are at least clean for little eyes and harmless for little hearts.
Reprimand and rebuke should be accepted as healing remedies for vice and as conducive to good health. From this it is clear that those who pretend to be tolerant because they wish to flatter -- those who thus fail to correct sinners -- actually cause them to suffer supreme loss and plot the destruction of that life which is their true life. - St Basil the Great
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