Entering Narnia, Part 2

It was to my delirious delight that my son was eager to read The Chronicles, but what's more, he craves them.

The actual wardrobe that is said to to have inspired the story that C.S. Lewis wrote is housed in a special collection at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College. When I told him that I had seen the real wardrobe, he said without hesitation, "Oh Mommy I want to go there!" I cannot wait to take him!

I never believed in Santa, and no TV show has ever had the impact on me that The Chronicles of Narnia had as a child. I can believe in Narnia. It is so real, and so tangible, and no one has ever proven that it doesn't exist. I still believe in it, actually. The grave disappointment for me however, came the day I reached into that wardrobe and knocked on the back of it and felt--a wood panel back...no pine trees, no soft glow from the lamp post. The professor did say that it would not be through the wardrobe that the children would find Narnia again, so what did I expect, really? Even so, the sign on the door is rightly posted, "please do not climb into the wardrobe." It is a strange, magical pull that one feels to hide in there and close the door, but not all the way. It's a foolish thing to close oneself up in a wardrobe, as all the Pevensies remembered except for Edmund...