Narnia

The last few days have just been a couple of glimpses I've seen in The Chronicles of Narnia. By no means do I claim to know that C.S. Lewis meant for these things specifically, and I am definitely not an expert on any of this. These were just my thoughts.

Garden to Garden

At the beginning of Narnia, the first human there is tempted in a garden, which is beautiful beyond description.. At the end of Narnia, everyone gets to live in that garden.

The earth began in the Garden of Eden. At the end of this world, there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth, which will be as beautiful as the Garden of Eden was. We will live in Paradise.

It's the End of the World As We Know It

Ever heard of Armageddon? The end of the world--the final battle between good and evil. Narnia has its own Armageddon in The Last Battle. Aslan's roar is all it takes for Narnia to come to an end. It's not a time-consuming, horrid end; it just takes a few moments for all the beauty of Narnia to disappear. It's something Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Jill, Digory, and Polly were all able to watch, but, obviously, they couldn't be in Narnia when it happened, or they, too, would have been destroyed.
All it took was the roar of the Lion. None of the great kings and queens and other characters of Narnian history did anything.
Let's look at our own Armageddon, or Har-Magedon, as may be a more appropriate spelling. The armies of the earth assemble, ready for the ultimate battle between God and the Devil. The armies march, the battle is about to begin, and, BOOM!, it's over. God does all the work. We don't even do anything. Just as Aslan's roar brought the end of the world of Narnia, God brings about the end of our world...when the time is right.

A Time For Everything

Okay, so I'll spoil it for you. Digory does not take the apple to his mother as he was tempted to do by Jadis. He does what he should, for the sake of Narnia, and takes the apple back to Aslan.
Aslan has him throw that apple, and, of course, like all things in Narnia that day, it fell into the ground, and a tree grew from it almost immediately. Guess what...it was an apple tree. Aslan does allow Digory to take one of these apples to his mother, though. The point is that a stolen apple from the garden would have done what it was designed to do...heal Digory's mother...but would have brought sorrow along with it. Now, with an apple that Digory was told to take, it will bring joy.

The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was not itself bad. It worked exactly as it was created to...giving knowledge of good and evil. The fact that it was taken when it was not allowed is what made it a sin. But just as in Narnia, another tree became the salvation of Narnia (for a time), there is another tree--The Tree of Life--which we will one day be allowed to eat of, and then, what rejoicing there will be, for we will eat of this tree in the proper time.

The Apple of Life

After the creation of Narnia, Jadis, the Queen of Charn (later known as the White Witch) runs off into the north, waiting for her chance to rule (and perhaps destroy) another world. Aslan states that even at the very beginning of this world, evil has entered it. If you know the story, then you know that Digory was more or less at fault for that evil entering Narnia, and for that reason Aslan charges Digory with helping him protect Narnia (at least for a time) from that evil.
Digory is to go retrieve an apple from a garden far away. When he arrives at this garden, Jadis is already there, and ready to tempt him not to take the apple to Aslan, but to take it home to his mother, who will be healed from her illness by it.
It kind of reminds you of another story about the Creation of a world, and evil entering into it, and there being a fruit tree in a garden, and of that evil tempting someone to do something with that fruit. Sound familiar?
Does Digory succumb to the temptation like Adam and Eve did? You'll have to read the book (or wait years and years for the movie to come out) to find out.