LWW chapter 7

1. Lu: “I think it’s a nice beaver.” Ed: “Yes, but how do we know?”
Devil: “Did God really say?” He likes to introduce doubt. Like today’s relativism creeping into mainstream Christianity.

2. But God accommodates our doubt. He gives us signs/sacraments, to know where Truth is, who is on the right side. The beaver shows Lu’s handkerchief.

3. The kids’ first encounter in Narnia beckons them “further in.” At the end, too, they are invited further up and further in.

4. The mention of Aslan’s name has a different but powerful affect on each. Peter feels brave, Susan feels a delightful smell, Ed feels horror, Lu feels like it’s the beginning of holidays. To some, we are the aroma of life, to others the aroma of death. Again, depending which side you’re on (2 Cor 2:15-16).

5. The goodness of the normal mundane world: beaver’s dam, good cooking, sewing machines, fishing, beer, kettle, bread, plates, hams, oilskins, trowels, spades, draining potatoes, stools, milk, butter, frying pans and marmalade rolls fresh from the oven, pushing back stools from the table, tea and a pipe. “There’s nothing to beat freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago.” The result of all this is “contentment.” But Ed is discontent, distracted from delighting in genuine goodness by the promise of enchanted Turkish Delight and being king over the others. “You could be so much more. You will be like God, if you do…”

6. “To think that I should ever live to see this day!” says Mrs. Beaver, as the kids come in. Preaching through the Annunciation, Elizabeth’s babe leaping in the womb, Mary’s Magnificat, and Zechariah’s prophecy (Luke 1:26-80), I sense a ton of parallels.

7. They push the stools back after dinner for Beaver to tell the story of what’s been going on, so the kids will understand recent events. Beaver calls this getting down to business, and it is. Family story time is serious business. Telling stories shapes worldviews. The witch already shaped Edmund’s. Beaver shapes the other 3 kids’, thankfully. You could also call this preaching or evangelizing: explaining significant, redemption-related events from God’s view.