Everything You Know is About to Change

The Narnia protagonists, like many Americans, were ushered into a strange new world. (Photo credit: Narnia.wikia.com)

There is a scene in the Narnia movie Prince Caspian that always makes me cry.

It is when the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, are running along in the ocean and laughing, delighted to be back in Narnia. Previous to that moment they had been standing on the platform of a railway station. The station and the coming train disappeared in a blur and the four are suddenly on a beautiful beach that they rightly suppose is in Narnia. They run into the surf, exulting in their unexpected presence in the land that they love so much. It seems as if they may just be in Narnia to have a holiday from World War II England.

Why on earth would that make me cry? Well, it’s not long before they realize that this is not a holiday and all is not as well as it would seem from this sunny beach. Looking atop the cliffs they see castle ruins and discover that they are the ruins of Cair Paravel, the seat of the kings and queens of Narnia. The timeframe in which they have entered the land is actually 1,300 years after they were Narnia’s rulers. Hundreds of years before their arrival, Narnia fell to the Telmarines. The Penvensies have been summoned to Narnia to take up a great burden – to right wrongs and engage in a life-and-death battle against evil forces that have taken control.

You may think this is a stretch, but that scene reminds me of the bright, sunny Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001. Although most of us didn’t realize it, we, America, the West, were already engaged in a life-and-death struggle against evil forces that have taken control. We only became aware of it when the planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and crashed into the field in Shanksville, PA.

Before the events take place that cause Prince Caspian to summon the Penvensie children back to Narnia, he was told by his teacher, “Everything you know is about to change.” But for Caspian and the Penvensies, as for America on 9/11, everything had already changed.