Here are three scenes from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe that I have just been reading. I think they are scenes that every human can relate to and, for the last one, longs for.

The most pleased of the lot was the other lion who kept running about everywhere pretending to be very busy but really in order to say to everyone he met, “did you hear what he said? Us lions That meant him and me. Us lions. That’s what I like about Aslan. No side, no stand-of-ishness. Us lions. That meant him and me. At least he went on saying this until Aslan had loaded him up with three dwarfs, one dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog. That steadied him a bit.


Eh? What’s that? Yes, of course you’ll get back into Narnia again someday. Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia. But don’t go trying to use the same route twice. Indeed, don’t even try to get there at all. It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it. And don’t talk too much about it even among yourselves. And don’t mention it to anyone else unless you find they’ve had similar adventures of the same sort themselves. What’s that? How will you know? Oh, you’ll know alright. Odd things they say—even their looks—will let the secrete out. Keep your eyes open. Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?


“Oh Children”, said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the otherside of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hill top he led them, now hopelessly out of reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun, the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.