Tags
Advent in Narnia, C.S. Lewis, Devotional, Heidi Haverkamp, Narnia, NetGalley, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Westminster John Knox Press
Title: Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season
Author: Heidi Haverkamp
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (September 14, 2015)
Pages: 96 (Paperback)
Blurb: “Walking into Advent can be like walking through the wardrobe.”
With its enchanting themes of snow and cold, light and darkness, meals and gifts, temptation and sin, forgiveness and hope―and even an appearance by Father Christmas―C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe fits naturally into the Advent season. As the reader seeks a storied king and anticipates the glorious coming of Christmas, these twenty-eight devotions alternate between Scripture and passages from the novel to prompt meditation on Advent themes. Each devotion also includes questions for reflection. The book also provides several resources for churches, including four sessions for small group discussion and ideas for creating a “Narnia Night” for families. Readers will ultimately come to know God better while journeying through Narnia.
My Take: Devotionals that tie in with anything Tolkien or C.S. Lewis are always a welcome discovery for me. So when I noticed an Advent-themed Narnia devotional I knew that I had to get my hands on it. And let me start off by saying that this is worth every penny to put it in your collection.
So much thought clearly went in to compiling this devotional. It contains four weeks worth of devotional material, alternating between a chapter tied primarily around a scene in the book (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and a chapter tied primarily around the Bible. Each devotion has ties with both, of course, but the primary content alternates by day which is a nice approach. The end of each day has 1-3 questions for reflection, as well, which makes this great for a family devotion, and each chapter tied to Narnia also mentions which chapter(s) in the book it pairs with.
But the real gold is what you’ll find after the devotions, and that is what elevates it from a good devotional to a great one. There is a 4-week series that I would have loved to have used when I was teaching in Children’s Ministry, each week centered around a theme from the book and the Bible. It mentions all sorts of props, activities, and many other great things to use and do, and this would be something that could even be done as a family at home providing a major focus once a week to go hand-in-hand with the daily devotions. There is a guide to the three film versions of the book, as well as some recipes and other great stuff. Crafts, props, and more are all covered in varying depths, and at the least it will spark ideas that could lead to some searching on Pinterest for how to pull them all together.
Overall this was a wonderful devotional, one I plan to pull out again in a few years once my little one is ready for his first venture into Narnia. I cannot recommend this one enough, especially with the Advent season right around the corner.
**I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Author David Wiley 