One of the most surreal scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia’s Prince Caspian, is when Lucy begins talking to a bear thinking he is a friend, but instead of having a pleasant conversation, the bear charges, and just as he prepares to maul her he is shot through the heart with an arrow.

The Pevensies are quite taken aback at the savage behavior of the bear, to which Trumpkin replies. You get treated like a dumb animal long enough and that’s what you become.  You may find Narnia a more savage place than what you remember.

This scene gets me more than any other in Prince Caspian’s story.  It’s a very vivid reminder of the chaos that sin brought into the world.  God created, and it was good, sin entered the world and it’s been chaos ever since.

We live each day in the reality of the fall.  This past year we’ve lost loved ones to both accident and sickness, we have watched people we care about deeply battle disease and struggle with circumstances beyond our comprehension, and we have witnessed outright brutality and utter hopelessness, all glaring consequences of the fall.  While we know the possibilities of such things as “normal”, this is not the way it was meant to be.  We were made for so much more than this.

The good news, the reality of the gospel, to which our hopeful hearts cling, is that we have a Redeemer who is coming to make all things new. To one day restore, forevermore, the original goodness of creation.  Every tear will be wiped away, there will no be such a thing as cancer or pimples, death or the common cold, and if there are mosquitoes, they certainly won’t bite! Creation will once again be set right, common annoyances and life altering disasters will be a thing of the past and peace will be the new normal.

We live in a world desperate to know such a hope.  All around us we hear creation moan, longing for restoration, these are our opportunities to share with those around us the Good News of the Redeemer, Jesus.  Chao.