My favorite part of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is when Father Christmas comes with the hopeful news that Aslan is in Narnia, the White Witch's powers are fading, and the cold of winter is coming to an end. His gifts of weapons also are strikingly similar to the Armo(u)r of God. I was thinking a little about that book today(I'm a big fan of Clive Staples Lewis) and it was always hard for me as a young kid growing up in southern California to understand what the big deal was with being "always winter and never Christmas." I loved Christmas, but the thought of being anywhere it was snowing (in my young, naive mind) seemed far more jolly than any present. The experience and wisdom I've acquired in recent years (living in Utah) has helped me understand this terrible truth: Winter = Death. For most of the people who have ever lived, that is a very real fact. If you entered the season without a large reserve of food, firewood, and body fat, it was curtains for sure.
We don't have to worry about "making it through the winter" anymore; most of us will live through it even without redoubling our efforts, but for those of us who still have to walk to school in the snow and brown street slush, the winter weather is less than desirable. But go ask anybody what their favorite time of year is; they'll probably say "Christmas Time." Not only does Christmas negate the bad feelings for winter, it makes it "The most wonderful time of the year." C.S. Lewis clearly illustrates that truth: Christ doesn't only overcome the pain of sin and perdition to a point of neutrality, but to exaltation. I know that Jesus wasn't really born in the winter time, but maybe it's an appropriate analogy to make the celebration of His birth have the same effect on the year as His atonement has on our lives.
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