The Lion, The Arm and Capoeira

Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Yesterday, we endured one and half hour of our time standing behind the ticket booth to watch the most anticipated movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". I got the tickets while my brother Aris and our friend Bryan, got the food for us. When we got there, all seats were taken so we decided to sit by the floor and made ourselves comfortable.

I remembered my classmate, Aya who was a Narnia fanatic and kept telling us how great this book is. Of course, it was written by the most deep and highly respected Christian writer, C.S. Lewis. As the story progressed we were led into a journey with the 4 siblings into the frozen land of Narnia, ruled by a wicked witch queen. But according to the prophecy, when the two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve (who are the 4 siblings) appears, Narnia will be freed and the witch queen will be defeated. However among the siblings there seems to be indifference and quarrels, so Edmond one of the siblings was led astray and was corrupted by the witch queen. The three other siblings however, found their way to Aslan, the Lion, who is the rightful king of Narnia.

As the story progressed, I led myself into thinking what the events mean. Knowing C.S. Lewis' works, I'm sure that there is a Christian truth behind the events. It came when Aslan rescued Edmond from the witch queen. The witch queen, however demanded her rights with Edmond - that every traitor must belong to her. (I remembered the Devil being portrayed this way in other stories like "Faust" and the play "The Devil vs. Daniel Webster") Aslan sacrificed himself for Edmond's freedom. During the night, Aslan willingly surrendered himself. He was mocked and stripped (his mane was shaved) struck by the witch queen and her minions. I remembered Jesus Christ who was mocked by the crowd, his majesty insulted, his clothes stripped, before the Roman soldiers lifted him on the cross on Calvary. So I realized Aslan must be Jesus Christ who gave his life in exchange of sinners, who like Edmond exchanged the whole cause of the Narnia for a bunch of sweets. It reminded me of us, who gave in to small indulgences to sin because it feels good at the moment not regarding any thought what it might do to us, or to other people because of what we do. Of course Aslan died but at sunrise he resurrected back into his radiant glory, roaring mightily like the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" just like what the Psalms said. He and the whole Kingdom, no matter how small or young they are - from the smallest beavers to young children (the 4 siblings) who led the war- fought and the force of darkness was extinguished. If we, no matter how we sinned, no matter where we came from, if we fight for the cause of Jesus and for his Kingdom, we can defeat the Enemy who tries to destroy us. I just love movies like this.

After watching the movie, we decided to eat cause we are really hungry. While walking along the sidewalk, Bryan and Aris begin to act "show-offs" and were cartwheeling demonstrating their capoeira^FYI skills. Aris cartwheeled but when his foot landed the floor, his shoes lost grip and he fell on his side, his right arm carrying all his weight as it made impact on the floor.

Capoeira - a martial arts native to Brazil

We helped Aris up, and he said he felt like he was going to faint. We checked his right arm and to my horror (or rather amusement :) bad me), it looked weird. It was like his triceps had gone big and his whole arm looked weirdly lop-sided. We concluded it was just dislocated and so Bryan and I decided we could eat first before we would attend to Aris' arm. But Aris insisted that he felt something "cracking" near his joints. So we decided to take him to the hospital and brought him to ER. Tests were done and the X-ray showed his humerus was fractured. Imagine a twig, that was split into two. It looked like it. That's why his triceps looked big. It was his bone protruding against his muscles. As I was writing this, Aris is on the operating room. The doctor is going to "screw" and snap the bone into place. I pray, Aris will be all right. He promised he will reflect upon his spiritual journey while he's on this... as if! God Bless you everyone and remember to smile despite trials. Last morning as I was paying to the cashier when I saw a poster that says, "You're problem is not your problem. It is your attitude that is your problem", quoted from John C. Maxwell... I guess he's right. Have a postive attitude on all situations and your problems are not big deal!