When I thought about the word “winter” for this post, the first thing that came to my mind was what Mr. Tumnus told Lucy in the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, by C. S. Lewis (one of my favorite authors): he said that in Narnia it was always winter and never Christmas.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto/1carson2

It is interesting that Lewis depicted the sad situation of the narnians by saying that they didn’t have Christmas there. They would be OK with the permanent winter as long as they had Christmas.

Then I thought of myself living in a place like that. I’ve never seen snow up close before, only on TV, movies, photos, etc. In case you’re wondering, I live in Brazil. So I cannot have an accurate perception of what such a place would be like. Certainly it would be colder than any place I’ve ever been. Yes, it would be awful for me.

I live in a pleasant place, with nice weather, but even living in a nice place reminds me that this earth needs to be restored, like Narnia. It was obvious for the narnians, but sometimes it isn’t so obvious for the humans.

Earth was created to be a paradise:

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

But the human race, represented by Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and let the spiritual winter enter the paradise. The relationship they had with God was broken, and the whole creation, humans included, were cursed because of their fall from grace.

In Narnia, Aslan (who is the character that represents Jesus in Lewis’s story) came back and put an end to the permanent winter.

That is an analogy for what the Bible says that Jesus will do with the earth and the whole creation:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (Revelation 21:1)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:3-5)

No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:3-5)

In the meantime, while we wait for Jesus’s return, we have winters but we also have Christmas. We have a reminder that Jesus came once, he set us free, and he will come back again to make everything new and better.

If you’re going through a “winter” in your life now, remember Christmas, and remember that someday soon winter will be over. Forever.

This post is part of the “One Word at a Time Blog Carnival” hosted by Peter Pollock. Check out other posts that were written based on the word “winter”.