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In The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis provides some of the most descriptive, captivating images of Heaven in all modern literature. His vision of Heaven doesn't involve harps, puffy clouds, and cute angels because he knows that those stereotypical images have no biblical basis. Instead, Lewis's depiction of Heaven reflects his knowledge of who God is and what kind of place he wants his children to inhabit for eternity.
A place of unlimited adventure and unlimited security
In this world, adventure and security are opposites; you can't embrace one without abandoning the other. As a result, many people gravitate toward one of these two extremes. Some people live for the rush of adrenaline that accompanies closing a major business deal or doing extreme sports. Others simply thrive when they feel safe and secure in their quiet suburban houses and get enough adventure from ordering pizza on a Friday night.
Lewis's real Narnia is a world that offers "secure adventure" (or is it "adventurous security"?). For example, when Eustace and Lucy jump into the Caldron Pool and head straight for the Great Waterfall, Eustace says, "This is absolutely crazy." Lucy replies, "Isn't it wonderful? Have you noticed one can't feel afraid, even if one wants to? Try it." The two are actually able to swim up the waterfall, and if you can imagine swimming up Niagara Falls or Angel Falls, you can guess at how terrifying that is. But as Eustace and Lucy experience in real Narnia, "It was only gloriously exciting."
 | Even Aslan's cry "further up, further in" implies the mixing of adventure and security. He's calling for everyone to move further up in the mountains to experience wonder as they head deeper into Aslan's country and closer to his comforting and protective arms. |
What's more, the adventure and security never stop growing. "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets," says Mr. Tumnus. This snowball effect is the gist of what Aslan tells Caspian in Prince Caspian: "Every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
A place of reunion
Reunions are a real drag when you don't enjoy being with the people you're seeing. However, when you're reunited with someone you love, there's hardly anything better than rekindling that relationship. Heaven is a place where Christians are reunited — forever — with spouses, parents, children, friends, and other loved ones. In real Narnia, King Tirian is reunited with his father, King Erlian. The Pevensie children rush toward their mother and father — who were killed in the railway accident — in "new England" (not to be confused with America's New England).
Besides family, however, Narnia's faithful are all present and accounted for in real Narnia, enjoying each other's company and reveling in old stories together.
"More real" than earth
When some people think of Heaven, they see it as a blissful place that's somehow less real or less tangible than the soil of good ol' planet Earth. Yet, one of Lewis's most firmly held beliefs about Heaven is that the Earth is but the Shadowlands for a far more real and tangible world to come. When a Narnian comments that real Narnia is "like Narnia," Digory corrects him by stating that it's "more like the real thing." Lord Digory expresses Lewis's ideas on earth and heaven when he contrasts old Narnia and real Narnia:
[Old Narnia] was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world . . . All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream . . . .
A place where good things never end
When you "get lost" in The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, or any other fantastic book, you likely look upon the final page with dread because you know that as soon as you read it, your adventure ends forever. For a contemporary book or film, you can always hope for a sequel, but for the Narnian Chronicles or the Ring series, there's no hope: Lewis and Tolkien have long since passed away! Yet, imagine for a moment the unbridled joy if you were to discover a storehouse of Narnian adventures that Lewis wrote but never published. What's more, suppose you were to find more books than you could possibly read in your lifetime. Then, to top it off, imagine that each story is better than one before. That's Heaven, according to Lewis.
All good things on earth have an ending, but not in "real life" (Heaven). Consider the remarkable contrast between the start of Prince Caspian and the end of The Last Battle. When Prince Caspian begins, the Pevensie children are at the train station dreading their return to boarding school. The narrator says that "everyone felt that the holidays were really over and everyone felt their term-time feelings beginning again, and they were all rather gloomy and no-one could think of anything to say." At the end of The Last Battle, however, this symbolism is turned completely around when Aslan tells the children, "The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
Filled with creatures designed for eternity
When the children and Talking Animals arrive in real Narnia, they're all amazed to find it's what they were made for. Jewel the unicorn exclaims, "I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now." The following sacred qualities apply to those living in real Narnia:
- Everyone's in the prime of their lives. On arriving in real Narnia, Digory's gray beard turns golden blond. In fact, Jill remarks that Digory and Polly, both 40 years older than she on earth, now look so much younger than back in England: "I don't believe you two really are much older than we are here." So too, King Erlian, Tirian's father, looks to his son as "young and merry as he could just remember him from very early days."
- Everyone's in tip-top physical shape. Physically, whatever ails humans on earth is made new in real Narnia. For example, Edmund's knee was sore, but it feels perfect in real Narnia.
- Everyone's free from the constraints of time. Time as we know it is different in real Narnia. Lewis depicts this reality in The Last Battle by having Father Time awaken and assume a new name.
- Everyone's free from the bondage of sin. Sin doesn't exist in Heaven, but people aren't automatically turned into robots either. What's different in Heaven is the way people look at sin. Aslan speaks to this point when he tells Caspian at the end of The Silver Chair, "You cannot want wrong things any more, now that you have died, my son." In other words, people in Heaven don't sin because they see sin for what it really is — that sin is, for example, the Green Witch as a horrid serpent, not her beauty queen façade.
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