Of the four Pevensie children who make their way through the wardrobe into Narnia, it is Susan whose life ends tragically. It’s not that she dies, but she doesn’t return to Narnia with her siblings years later. She never makes it to Aslan’s country.
The other three children we can identify with. We want to be Peter, brave to a fault, ready to rush in to any situation regardless of the risk. We give thanks for Edmund, the redeemed traitor because we know we have all been Edmund. And we love Lucy because she is always faithful.
But Susan we abandon. She’s vain for starters. And then she commits the ultimate sin. She turns her back on Narnia. She grows up too fast. So we abandon her. We follow Lucy, Peter and Edmund into Aslan’s country and we never give Susan another moment’s thought.
There’s a problem with doing that though, because out of all the Pevensie children, we are most like Susan.
Think about this for a moment. What does it take to walk through the wardrobe? What does it take to embrace Narnia? The first thing we must do is believe in magical things. We have to believe in white witches and talking animals. We have to believe in fauns who want to have tea with us and beavers who will risk everything to get us to the Stone Table.
Those are the stories of children you say. We’re not meant to believe in those things.
Really? How about this? In order to believe in Narnia you have to believe in an all powerful, omniscient being who will sacrifice his life to save others. We have to believe in resurrection. We have to believe that death is not the end. We have to believe in prayer. We have to believe in miracles. We have to believe in stars that fall to earth and become human.
Do you see what Jesus meant when he said we must be like little children?
Every time we pray, every time we worship, every time we take a leap of faith, we are walking through those wardrobe doors and agreeing to believe in a world beyond our understanding. We’re agreeing to live in a world that is sometimes frightening and confusing, but also amazing and beautiful and surprising.
More often than not we’re afraid to do that. We become Susan because it is easier to only believe in things we can touch and see.
It is easier.
But if we had a choice, if we sat down and really looked at our options, who would we choose to be, Susan or faithful Lucy? Because we all know that Susan was never happy. And we all know that Lucy was the happiest of all even when she had no idea what would happen next.
