AWAKE, THOU THAT SLEEPEST, AND ARISE FROM THE DEAD!

I love George MacDonald. He is the type of person whom I would love to have as a grandfather or uncle, alongside Lewis and Tolkien. Like Lewis' main character in the Great Divorce, I imagine I will have long and lovely conversations with him in Heaven. I appreciate and deeply relate to his literature due to his romantically poetic language through which he conveys the most profound truths by use of allegorical myth. Much like beautiful music, MacDonald's allegories sing eternal truths to my soul. He is a nice one.

Currently I am reading Lilith, in which a man inherits a house passed down for generations, which has a rather extensive library. This man meets a mysterious sexton, Mr. Raven, who has apparently been the librarian since it has been in existence (at least since the man's great great grandfather possessed the house). The nameless owner of the house follows Mr. Raven through an old mirror in a forgotten chamber into another world, in which the only way out is to go further in. After bringing him to his home, Mr. Raven offers the man a bed to sleep in amongst others who are peacefully sleeping (or dead?), blanketed in the healing rays of the moon. The man reflects to himself, "I thought at first their sleep was death, but I soon saw that it was deeper still--a something I did not know". The sexton also refers to this deathly room as one of the cellars he was placed to watch, adding: "much wine is set here to ripen!--But it is dark for a stranger!"

The man exclaims:

"'But these are all dead, and I am alive!' I objected, shuddering.

'Not much,' rejoined the sexton with a smile, '--not nearly enough! Blessed be the true life that the pauses between its throbs are not death!'"

These people in MacDonald's story are becoming alive by dying. The man in the story seems to be alive, but is more dead than those who seemingly lay in death! He is not really alive--he does not possess the true life, which can only be possesed through the complete giving up and dying to oneself.

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" ~Matt 10:39

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" ~Rom 6:4

"AWAKE SLEEPER, AND ARISE FROM THE DEAD, AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU" ~Eph 5:14

Sometimes I wish that I could enter one of MacDonald's mythical worlds. If only I could stumble my way into the Raven's world to find a bed amongst those who are dying and simultaneously becoming more and more alive until they are wakened to newness of life. However, I can hear what MacDonald would say to me..."Laura, you are in Mr. Raven's world."