Ever since I was old enough to read chapter books, my all-time favorite book has remained the same: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It has always struck me as a perfect fantasy, full of wonder and fascination.
Although I was raised Catholic, I was surprised to later learn that the book is a Christian allegory. As a child, I simply took it as a marvelous invention. Perhaps I failed to make the connection because the powerful, complex Aslan seemed so far from the judgmental Christ who had come to seem almost mundane through his classroom-wall ubiquity.
As actor/writer Max McLean points out, in character as Lewis during his one-man stage show Further Up & Further In, Aslan does not promise safety or comfort. Nor does he micromanage his followers’ lives. He merely sits in power, waiting and hoping the beings of Narnia will make a leap of faith: the only choice that can possibly save them.
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