Today ends my reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. While I personally enjoyed the first book in the series more than the last, C.S. Lewis concludes with an ending that is a new beginning. Once again, deep Christian theology sneaks into these books written for children.
At the end of “The Last Battle,” the final story in The Chronicles of Narnia, the characters discover something surprising. What they thought was the end of Narnia is not the end at all.
Instead, they find themselves in a world that feels both familiar and entirely new. Mountains rise higher. Colors seem brighter. The land itself feels more alive. They realize a truth about the world: the old Narnia is only a shadow of the real one. The real one is so much more …. greater than human imagination.
And then comes the invitation that echoes through the closing pages: “Further up and further in!”
The deeper they go, the larger the world becomes. The more they explore, the more beauty they discover. Instead of reaching the end, they find that joy keeps expanding.
It’s a wonderful picture of Christian hope. It’s a wonderful picture of the reality promised us at the end of the Bible, where we will discover a new heaven and a new earth. Not new worlds formed in “some other galaxy far, far away,” but our present world reshaped and renewed by God. It will feel both familiar and entirely new, and the deeper we go, the larger it will become.
Sometimes we imagine eternity as a long, static existence—like a hymn that never ends. And, if we’re honest, that vision of eternity scares us. But Scripture paints a more vibrant vision. The apostle Paul hints at it when he writes, “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
What we know now is only partial. What we glimpse now is only the beginning.
The life of faith isn’t a journey toward something smaller or narrower. It’s a journey toward something infinitely larger. Toward a reality where God’s goodness keeps unfolding in ways we can barely imagine.
Lent prepares us for that hope, that promise, of a future that will be deeper and richer than we can imagine. As we let go of lesser things—old habits, distractions, illusions of control—we make space for the deeper life God is leading us into.
A life that is further up and further in.
The journey to that place begins today, with our first tentative steps through the wardrobe and into the Narnia that is better than the world around us but isn’t quite yet the real Narnia. Because every step of faith, every act of love, every moment of grace is already moving us in the direction of God’s new kingdom.
Prayer: Lord of all creation, thank you that the story doesn’t end in darkness. Lead me further up and further in—deeper into your grace, deeper into your love, and deeper into the life you have prepared for me and for all of your people. Amen.
