Chapter 3: The Lone Islands

I know there is kidnapping and adventure in chapter three, but my favorite line was, "There was a lark singing."

That simple statement felt out of place. The pause pointed me to read the entire paragraph again, and this time I actually connected with what I had already read: "barefoot on downy turf," "delightful," "warm," "pleasant."

How many times do we speed through life the way I sped through that paragraph, missing the beauty? Lucy was soaking up her world – every sense was tuned to the feel of downy turf, the smell of earth and grass, the sound of a lark singing. Her senses were heightened to squeeze every nuance out of every moment.

Notice that Lucy has been engaging the Narnian world all along:

• "…as Lucy and Edmund sipped [the spiced wine] they could feel the warmth going right down to their toes." (chapter 1)
• "When she had finished dressing she looked out of her window at the water rushing past and took a long deep breath. She felt quite sure they were in for a lovely time." (chapter 1)
• "…the smell in the cabin when she opened [her flask of cordial] was delicious." (chapter 2)
• "…when they turned aft to the cabin and supper, and saw the whole western sky lit up with an immense crimson sunset, and felt the quiver of the ship, and tasted the salt on their lips, and thought of unknown lands on the eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she was almost too happy to speak." (chapter 2)

And notice the contrast with Eustace’s responses to the same events:

• he spat out the spiced wine and began to cry;
• in his cabin we find him with a scowl and seasickness;
• he labeled the cordial "beastly stuff;"
• and at the time of the sunset, Eustace "would be pleased with nothing."

I think I can safely say he missed the lark singing.

Are you more like Lucy or more like Eustace?

I am reminded: I have five senses that I can too easily ignore as I go through my day. There is work, laundry, e-mail, shopping, mowing, cooking, repairing, and cleaning to be done. I can be overwhelmed with life and miss the lark singing. But sing he does…and when I take it in, I allow the bubble of my busyness (or crankiness) to be burst in order to enjoy the world God has put me in.

For me, the lark’s song looks like a hug from my daughter, my husband’s eyes as I welcome him home, a beautiful harmony I hear on the radio, the warmth of a cup of cocoa, my mom’s laughter on a phone call, the smell of a campfire, the sight of leaves dancing in the breeze, the kindness of one person to another.

"We tend to think of pleasure as oases of enjoyment in a desert of humdrum. But Narnia shows us that pleasure saturates all of life… All creation is infused with delight that tells us something of the love of the God who created us to experience pleasure. Just wake up your senses and enjoy." (Thomas Williams, The Heart of the Chronicles of Narnia, p. 28-29)

What does "a lark singing" look like in your world?
What do your senses enjoy that show you where God is throughout your day?