As we began this year, Dr. Denlinger offered a vision of Arma Dei as the doors of the Wardrobe into Narnia. He reminded us that the goal is to “prepare students to live in that big, bad, beautiful yet broken, created by God [to be fundamentally] good yet fallen world.” We would like to propose that there is no better time than now – in the midst of a pandemic – to be teaching our children how to live purposefully and intelligently in service to God and others.
In Narnia’s The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe, as the Pevinsie children walk through the wardrobe door into Narnia, they face grave dangers and deal with sadness, grief, fear, frustration, and many other challenging emotions in response to their circumstances. Yet they do not become so singularly focused on the crisis at hand that they fail to experience and explore the meaning of loyalty, friendship, and even celebration in the midst of dark times. As their adventure continues in face of a seemingly insurmountable struggle they nevertheless experience the small signs of the coming redemption of Narnia in the return of Father Christmas, the midnight celebration of the wood and river people, and ultimately, a face to face moment with Aslan Himself. After their story concludes, they come back to our world with a better understanding of how to engage difficult circumstances without giving into hopelessness. We do hope that Arma Dei is such a place as Narnia, where our children come to learn how to live purposefully and intelligently in our own world no matter the circumstances. Click on the image below to watch video.
