One Door at a Time

Photo by Mauricio Artieda from Pexels

I don’t know about you, but I’m very tired. I haven’t had that-good a night’s sleep in several days. As a college student, I have a few papers/presentations rapidly approaching their day of judgment. Haha. It’s not that bad. Still, I’m just being honest.

Just as I sit here blinking at the computer with fervent eyes and hands, hardly able to think about the next step (what shall I do about breakfast?), so also it goes with the story I’m working on. I read an article for my Fantasy Literature class called “‘Deeper Magic’: Allusions in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by Marvin Hinton, which quoted C.S. Lewis’ testament on how he came up with that classic children’s story. It was not so much that he wondered how he could fit Christianity into an allegory. In fact, it wasn’t at all. “This is all pure moonshine,” said he. It all started with images: a lion, a queen on a sledge, and a lamp post. His first version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did not even have the same children in it: Ann, Martin, Rose, and Peter, from oldest to youngest. It took him at least another try to find Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

But his passing by Ann, Martin, Rose, and Peter was not worth nothing. If he hadn’t done so–if he’d never opened that door–he may never have met the real children which he was looking to write about, whose story he was really searching for.

Moment by moment, we live our lives. Sounds corny perhaps, but there really is no other way we go. The story I am writing is about two mythical creatures who discover an interesting pocket of our own world, and they will find even more wonders the second year than they could possibly have imagined discovering in their first, though it may take a few versions before I get to the real truth about it. As for me, what more can I do than to seek the Lord and pray moment by moment? That’s the best way to go.