Always Winter, Never Christmas

If you’ve ever loved a story where light breaks through darkness, you know the longing behind “always winter, never Christmas.” Narnia hinted at a truth our hearts already recognize: We were made for a world where the cold doesn’t win—and where a Hero steps in to thaw what’s frozen.

 

How Jesus Breaks the Spell of a Cold World

If you’ve ever read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you may remember the chilling line that defined the White Witch’s rule: “always winter, but never Christmas.” Narnia was frozen—a land locked under a counterfeit kingdom with a counterfeit queen. It was a world without hope. Snow shimmered across the landscape, but everything life-giving and joyful had been stolen.

When siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy stumbled through the wardrobe into Narnia, the beavers told them the good news every icy wind whispered: “Aslan is on the move.” He had come to save them—and hope had begun to thaw the world’s long winter.

But long before C.S. Lewis penned his classic, Scripture had already told our story. Humanity walked in its own winter—an ache of separation, sin, and self-rule that began in Eden. And like Edmund, who was enticed to betrayal by the promise of becoming a prince, we too are tempted by the enemy’s counterfeit offers. From the beginning, Satan has made rebellion look like freedom and God’s goodness look withheld.

Edmund as Every Believer

Edmund is more than a side character—he is a portrait of us all. In him, we see familiar desires:

• A desire to feel important
• Willingness to trust a lie that promises comfort
• Quiet resentment toward those who loved him most

These reveal something universal about the human condition. We recognize ourselves in his wandering and in his weakness. Yet his story doesn’t end in failure. Just as Aslan personally sought, forgave, and restored Edmund, God pursues each one of us with a redemption far deeper than we deserve. Edmund’s restoration becomes a whisper of our own.

We discover that what the Witch offered Edmund was not a promotion—it was a theft of his birthright. It was less than Aslan intended for him, and it came with hooks. And the same is true of the enemy’s lies to us.

Where Does the Winter Come From?

The darkness in our world doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It comes from the same place Edmund’s betrayal came from: the desire to be our own god, to direct our own story … to choose what seems sweet in the moment, even if it leads to bondage.

Yet just as Aslan bore the consequences of Edmund’s choice, Jesus did not abandon us to our winter.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).

He invaded the darkness with light. He stepped into our frigid world—not with icy power or dazzling intimidation, but with warmth, tenderness, and humility.

Eric Eichinger captures this beautifully in his powerful exploration of Jesus as the ultimate hero:

Christmas can be experienced every day in the midst of a fallen world. Knowing Jesus is an enchantingly warm, shelter-like experience, in which God meets humanity in the bitter, soul-freezing winter of sin. — Eric T. Eichinger, Lord of Legends

Our Hero Steps Onto the Stage

Jesus came in a way no one expected—a King wrapped not in royal robes but in swaddling cloths, laid in a manger, dependent on the care of others. In a world obsessed with strength, He came in weakness. In a world trained to seek spectacle, He came in simplicity.

Critics sometimes note that Christianity shares echoes with myth or legend. And yet, the incarnation of Jesus stands apart: It fulfilled the longing that sings from these stories. While many ancient Greeks viewed the physical body as a prison for the soul, Christianity proclaims that God Himself became fully human—not temporarily or reluctantly, but redemptively.

Eichinger writes:

“Because God became a man, He knows the same landmarks of pain and suffering that we know. He’s walked the same side streets of sadness and alleyways of anguish familiar to sinners of a sinful world. Jesus understands poverty and pain, hunger and thirst, the loss of a beloved friend, even death itself.”

He did not stay distant. He did not remain aloof. Jesus came close.

He entered our story with the express purpose of redeeming it—of melting our “always winter, never Christmas” world from the inside out.

Thawing the Winter: The Redeemer Arrives

As Aslan redeemed Edmund—rescuing him, forgiving him, and restoring him to the truth of who he was meant to be—so Jesus redeems us. He breaks the curse, shatters the cold, and awakens life where there was only frost.

Narnia thaws at Aslan’s roar. Our world thaws at Jesus’ cross and empty tomb.

Through suffering, Jesus accomplished our salvation. Through His resurrection, He ushered in a new spring.

And as J.R.R. Tolkien is often quoted as saying about the Christian story:

“This story begins and ends in joy.”

Because Jesus has come, joy is no longer seasonal. Hope is no longer fragile. Light is no longer temporary.

In Him, winter does not get the last word.

The Invitation of Christmas

Christmas is not only a date on the calendar. It’s a declaration that the true King has come—and that His kingdom is breaking into our world of cold places and cold hearts.

It is the announcement that:

• Darkness is not permanent.
• Sin is not sovereign.
• Evil does not win.
• You are not alone.

Jesus is on the move. And when He draws near, Christmas arrives—warmth, hope, redemption, and new life—in the unexpected places where winter once ruled.

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Books Mentioned in This Article

• C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Eric T. Eichinger, Lord of Legends: Jesus’ Redemption Quest