Reality is at the Source

Cassie's use of Narnia got me juiced on this topic: further up and further in, because that's when we began to see true reality. And how wonderful it is that God had this planned for us all along. I can imagine being in this place because of these two things (one of which is Tangled, but I will try my best to not spoil the plot):

From Cassie's post/Narnia:

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then he cried:

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that is sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

And from the movie "Tangled":

In this movie, the daughter, Rapunzel, gets snatched from the night as a baby. She is taken from her real home (Kingdom, parents, peace...etc), and put into a position of slavery with a mean-old-woman. Perhaps the worst part is that Rapunzel has no idea that she is in bondage for most of the movie. But there is more. Something is going on here. And as Darrell says (and Jesus shows), things are not as they seem. Echoes around her are telling her there is much more to reality.

Here is why: every year on her birthday, lanterns light the sky (they happen to be sent from her parents who want her to come home, but intriguingly enough, they do not go out to find her and force her home). Although, she does not know what these lanterns mean, she feels them beckon her to find the source: to go further up and further in. There is something real about the source of these lights, unlike anything else around her. Similar to CS Lewis' "Last Battle", you would have to think that it's one of those things that you cannot explain, but can only be seen and heard, but mostly seen. Eventually, Rapunzel does escape to go see these lights and eventually travels up and in to the "source". It was a captivating image of what is happening and what will come.

These "lights in the sky" are not the source, but point to the source, which is reality. That God is paving a way home for us causes my heart to melt unlike anything else. My eyes water at the beauty of each story where someone is lost but is found and finally returns to their real home, ie the prodigal sons. (and there is NO surprise that there are tons of these stories/images outside of scripture since our search for satisfaction in God and a home with Him is wired into us (whether or not we recognize the echoes of the source and our bondage/lostness/need)! No wonder we see God when we read/watch almost any story that contains a normal plot which has: a sense of reality, a fall, a battle/climax, a renewed situation)

"I belong here" is what ARE saying as the moment approaces. Imagine that! "I belong here". Where? With God! We belong WITH God! My Jesus, my savior is lighting the way home for me. At the end of the road is his loving embrace, his eyes of compassion. Home. That's what's ahead: further up and further in.

These Phil Wickham lyrics sum it up nicely:

I hear Your voice and I catch my breath
'Well done my child, enter in and rest'
Tears of joy roll down my cheek
It's beautiful beyond my wildest dreams