The Lion, the Box, and the New Year

Feeling ever so grateful!  Best husband EVER (sorry, ladies!),  glittering glasses of champagne to cheer in 2019,  ham and greenery for our New Year's meal, and a surprise trip to the magical land of Longwood Gardens from the hubs!

I am not ashamed to tell you that I did search for, and successful find, the iconic Harry Potter song to play in the background while I videotaped the floating firs!...checking off those new year goals straight away!

My Grandmama was insistent on the Christmas season reigning in full up to Little Christmas (i.e. Three Kings Day/the dawn of Epiphany). My heart is still decked out like our arctic white tannenbaum, and though I will soon carefully tuck away the tree and its counterparts, I plan to keep the sparkle and whimsy wrapped around my heart like a shimmering shield. Like Dickens taught us with Scrooge's awakening, Christmas is reason for celebration in all seasons, and in the midst of January's typical resolution/fitness/"new me" outbursts, I keep finding myself coming back to this one quote.

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorites.  His path in faith is unapologetically imperfect, yet he strikes down his pen with the confidence of Moses at the shore of the Red Sea to proclaim the redeeming power of our God. He enlightens and enrages his reader simultaneously and challenges them to step out of their cushioned cartons of thought.  God doesn't live in a box. And no matter how much we try to make him neat and tidy and make sense of Him, He will never fit inside the container of our minds' constraints.

Once past the illusion of the Wardrobe in Lewis's Chronicles, the children learn of Narnia's true King.  Mr. Beaver says it best.

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "

Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"

..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Out of our control, and in control of everything.  Halleluiah and Amen!

Isaiah 43:18-19