__________ friday.

Fiction Friday.

You could also call it "favorite friday" because I'm about to talk about my main man, C.S. Lewis.

I nurtured a deep love for Lewis long before I even knew who he was. I received The Chronicles of Narnia as a young girl and have since read through all of them multiple times. Being young, I pretty much took the series at face value. In my mind they were awesome stories of magical lands, princes, talking animals, and battles where good always overcame evil. In high school I discovered Lewis' more blatantly religious books and I haven't stopped reading since. I could go on for hours about how much I adore the writings of C.S. Lewis, but this is fiction friday after all and I don't want to steal its spotlight.

I recently re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a book that is classified as fiction, but as many of us know, tells a story much bigger than itself. To this day, I cannot read the chapter telling of Aslan's sacrificial death without a.) bawling and b.) being reminded of my Savior's sacrificial death for my sins. The part that really gets me, is that Aslan gave his life to save one small boy. He ended up saving all of Narnia from the White Witch, but he really was doing it to take the place of Edmund and spare his life.

The power of this book, and the whole series, lies in the fact that it is written as a work of fiction. This story, written for children, has the power to move me to tears and remind me that Jesus was a real man, with real feelings. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." What happened at the Cross was painful, and not just physically. And He did it for me. He did it for every one of us, but if it were only I needing the saving, He would have still said yes.

And in the end, it is a story of hope, healing, and redemption. The frost melts into a beautiful springtime, creatures are freed from their stony prison to live in joy once again, and most importantly, the King conquers death.

I'll leave you with my favorite passage from the book:

"Oh, children," said the Lion, "I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!" He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hill-top he led them, hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a happy romp as no one has ever expected in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing in a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tires or hungry or thirsty...

I don't know about you, but I can't help feeling the love.