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Jared & Mateo: Hearing the Story for the 1st Time (a/v)

Jared & Mateo: Hearing the Story for the 1st Time (a/v)

Last updated on: September 16, 2018 at 10:54 am by Rev. Jared V. Ingle

Jared & Mateo: Hearing the Story for the 1st Time (a/v) 2018-09-16T10:54:00-04:00 Rev. Jared V. Ingle

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We’re in the middle of a series on C.S. Lewis, who wrote extensively.[1] However, in the grand scheme of things we must remember that some will only know him as the writer who created Narnia and its characters, such as Aslan. In this a/v post and the next, I’ll have the opportunity to share the story with my oldest son Mateo. His personal connections with Narnia center on a couple of stories of Aslan.

Crystal Ingle | Mateo, Great Smoky Mountains | 05.15.18

Mateo first knew Lewis as the Narnia creator

I have read all of The Chronicles of Narnia books in order to him. Since then, he has read other works like The Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces: a Myth Retold, and Mere Christianity.[2]

Since this is an informal piece, Mateo has also shared his fun writing style for this read.

Jared: Now, I want to share just a personal story with you, and I will have my son comment if he wants. I have a rare treat tonight, my son Mateo Vernell Ingle is here, fourth in the line of Vernells.

Anyway, real quick, the story goes like this: we have read (and my family has read it, so it’s a family tradition now) . . .

Excuse me.

*takes a sip of coffee*

Aaah. Here’s one for you: “Café con leche” with Swedish coffee.

*takes another sip*

Mmm. Really good.

*Mateo grabs the coffee and drinks it too*

Jared & Mateo: Hearing the Story for the 1st Time

My dad, Vernell Ingle, is carrying the ball with the C.S. Lewis study, and writing for us. He is kind of a C.S. Lewis expert. He is not only an expert, he loves reading the stories to his children. Dad read them to all five of us growing up.

He had a different voice for every single character. Although we are more Spanish than anything, he had an English accent for the narrator throughout the entire series. I simply do not know how he did it.

Thankfully, I have married a wife who is a theatre buff. She has coached me a little bit and I have been able to start into those readings.

Anyway, here is what happened: we were in the middle of reading the second book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.[3] Many of you have probably seen the movie. When we got into the story, Mateo was probably about five or six. We had been reading on a stormy night. We were in Salinas, California, and my wife Crystal was out shopping with our youngest son at the time, Cruz.

Mateo and I had gotten to the chapter “The Triumph of the Witch,” which is chapter 14. For those of you who know, this is the chapter where Aslan *SPOILER ALERT* is slain by the White Witch. She basically slays him because he tries to take back the traitor, who is Edmund.

Because Aslan tries to redeem Edmund, he must die instead of the traitor (and it runs a pretty close Christian parallel)

What happens in this chapter is the same that you see in the movie, when Aslan goes to the Stone Table (which my dad explained in depth in the last post). Aslan is slain there by the Witch and her hordes of minions.

Now, what may be different for us was that my son was hearing it for the first time, at five years old. We got about midway through the chapter, and it started to dawn on Mateo that Aslan had no way out of this, this was actually going to happen, and that he was actually going to die.

Before she even lifts her dagger to plunge it into his chest, Mateo is weeping . . . and I mean weeping! This is no trickle of tears.

Mateo: This is no Disney movie cry. This is legit!

Jared: He’s weeping and we’re both sitting on the floor. I’m thinking, “Oh no, he supposed to go to bed. Crystal is supposed to get back soon.” So I texted Crystal and told her to just stay out a little bit longer. Don’t come back with the groceries yet. Just give me a little bit longer because I have to read the next chapter. We can’t wait until tomorrow for this one.

So we get into the next chapter, and of course my son is beside himself. He’s had a crisis of faith basically. A five year old is understanding this story!

The next one was chapter 15 “Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time.” In the story it shows how the deeper magic that created Narnia and created the land put in place that if someone died innocently for somebody else that it would be reversed. That curse would be reversed.

In this chapter Aslan comes back to life, and Lucy and Susan are there with him. They are overjoyed. All of a sudden, my five year old son is not weeping anymore.

He’s jumping, literally jumping, all over our living room, as if he’s celebrating with Lucy and Susan in that moment!

This story had captivated him, and it blew me away. At that point, being the pastoral type that I am, I was able to sit down with my son and explain to him that this symbolized the death and resurrection of Christ. A Christian response to this story was exactly what C.S. Lewis intended for us to have.

Jesus died and rose again, but it’s more than a story when our emotions are involved, it’s beyond anything that we can put on paper. My son was completely engaged in the story, completely felt the emotion. I was able to explain to him that this could have been what it was like when the disciples lost Christ, and when He came back to life.

Questions to Consider:

1) Have you had a moment like this, or moments, when you could tie a story with great meaning directly to the Bible?

2) What is the worth of sharing such moments with family, loved ones, or those closest to you?

3) I carved out extra time to read another chapter. Can you allow yourself to engage in times like this, even if it may seem like an inconvenience? Can you stop your spinning world for the sake of relaying aspects of the greater story?

[1] This post is part of a series about C.S. Lewis.

Aslan Acrostic: Dr. Thomas Woodward shares the story of C.S. Lewis

Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis

Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis, pt. 2

A Distinction in Ancient Literature (a/v)

Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis, pt. 3

On the Supernatural as the Natural Life (a/v)

Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis, pt. 4

Language Acquisition (a/v): LEWIS, TOLKIEN, & PIAGET(?)

Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis, pt. 5

[2] The following links of Mateo’s reads are to the C.S. Lewis ebooks:

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Space Trilogy

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

Mere Christianity

[3] C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, vol. 2 of The Chronicles of Narnia (New York: Collier Books, 1950).
Amazon: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

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