This is my favorite part of our evening walk, especially when that walk occurs in the time just before sunset. This view tends to cause me to pause, to linger, at least for a few moments to watch the sky and the way the colors dissolve into each other. The vibrancy strikes me first, and then there is a slow, almost imperceptible fade wherein the blue of the sky absorbs the sun’s horizon-dipping oranges and reds.

But what always sparks my soul is that lamppost perfectly situated in between the trees and against the blazing sky. Its small burning lamplight immediately whispers of Narnian adventures to me and so how can I not linger at least for a moment? I am certain I have several iterations of this very photo because this view, this moment, seems new to me each time I make my way down the small hill in our neighborhood.

Do you see the magic in this moment?

Perhaps it is only me, and that’s okay. But perhaps you will sit here with me for just a moment longer and catch a glimpse of Narnia, a glimpse of magic and wonder here in an ordinary moment. I think we miss the wonder around us because we are too often fighting through the chaos of life when we should in fact be like knights fighting those who storm our castles, or fighting the white witch who threatens eternal winter.

Narnia invites me to adventure. It invites me to linger and to imagine and to seek the hand of my Creator who likewise invites me to adventure. Grand adventures. Faith adventures. Wonder-filled adventures.

I cannot help but marvel at the gift of this perfectly placed lamppost here in my small neighborhood. I cannot see it as anything but the gift I believe it to be, perhaps just for me. Each night it signals to me, its light winking just barely perceptible against the sunset blazing so brightly behind it. But it’s in the winking of that barely burning lamp that I am transported into a completely other realm of myself, into imagination and magical quests and mystical mysteries.

Even as my feet lead me home, the wonder remains, it whispers enough to stir my soul and awaken long-dormant desires for adventures still available to me if I am courageous enough not only to acknowledge them but to prepare for them and even embrace them. This life I am generously provided is more than drudgery and chaos; and a simple lamppost is more than a lamppost.