The Lion on Center Stage

By Robert E. Sagers  - Have you ever wondered what inspired C. S. Lewis’ story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Lewis answered the question in a brief essay included in On Stories:

The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it’.

That’s interesting. A mythical creature born of Lewis’ (then unregenerate) imagination led to the writing, twenty-four years later, of the classic children’s novel.
But the faun, of course, was not the central character of Lewis’ work. The author continues:

At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don’t know where the Lion came from or why He came. But once He was there He pulled the whole story together, and soon He pulled the six other Narnian stories in after Him.

I wonder if Lewis’ experience with the lion Aslan reflects something of the wonder in the Israelites’ longing for the Messiah. All of Israel’s hopes of redemption took form in the person, the work, of Jesus—”the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 21:6).
Redemption came not just for Israel, but for the whole world. And only in light of the death and resurrection of Christ does anything else in all creation make one bit of sense.
To modify Lewis’ reflection on Aslan: once Jesus was there He pulled the whole story together.
He is a lion, after all (Rev 5:5).
First Things