In The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis paints a beautiful picture of the New Earth in the final book, The Last Battle. The book begins with a near collision of a railroad train, where the children are thrust into Narnia. But when their adventure is over, the children are afraid they will be sent back to Earth again.
Having experienced the joys and wonders of Narnia, and the presence of Aslan—the Lion who is in fact Christ—the thought of returning to earth was unbearable. Then, in the final section, called “Farewell to the Shadow Lands,” Aslan, the great Lion, gives the children some wonderful news:
“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are, as you used to call it in the Shadowlands, dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
That is followed by what is perhaps my favorite paragraph outside of Scripture:
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia have only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the great Story which no one on earth has read; which goes on for ever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.
When Lewis refers to the typical fairy-tale ending—“they all lived happily ever after”—some readers may be tempted to respond, “But fairy tales aren’t true.” However, the Bible isn’t a fairy tale—it is utterly realistic, devastating in its portrayal of sin and suffering, not at all naive. Nowhere in Scripture do we see sentimental wishful thinking. What we see is mankind’s devastating separation from God; the death of countless sacrificial lambs; the hard, agonizing work of Christ’s redemption; the tangible nature of His resurrection; and the promise of coming judgment. At last we see the restoration of God’s ideal universe, fulfilling His plan of the ages, culminating in a resurrected people living with Him on a resurrected Earth. Then, and only then, will we live “happily ever after.”
But we will indeed live happily ever after!
By God’s grace, I know that what awaits me in His presence, for all eternity, is something so magnificent it takes my breath away even now. Job said it most succinctly: “In my flesh I will see God; . . . I, and not another” (Job 19:26-27). The prospect of seeing God eclipsed all of Job’s heartaches. Surely it can eclipse yours and mine. Our ship of happiness may not come in today—but it will certainly come in. Meanwhile, laying claim to Christ’s bought-and-paid-for happiness brings us joy today.
