It's All about Love

Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about what I believe is a large theme of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: love. Throughout the whole book, as is throughout human nature, there are mess-ups followed by redemption.
In class we talked about why Aslan had to die, and the truth is he did not, rather he chose to. As we talked through the issue and came up with different theories backed up by evidence, the one that truly stuck out to me was love. Of course Aslan did not have to sacrifice himself, he did not do a single thing wrong. However, because Edmund “sinned” a debt had to be paid. Normally, and in many cultures today, it would be Edmund’s responsibility to take the punishment- death. Nevertheless, Edmund does nothing.
Aslan loves Edmund enough to die for him- to use himself as a sacrifice.
Aslan allows the White Witch to destroy, humiliate, and slaughter him in order for the “sin” of Edmund to be washed away.
Even now as I think about how much Aslan sought after the children, and all of Narnia, I am blown away. I know when someone does me wrong, even in the smallest way, the last thing I want to do is help them. I think this is the point Lewis is making (put in my own words of course): love is not easy, it requires sacrifice. Throughout our life we will be hurt by people we love, or by the ones we don’t love, and he is calling us to keep loving them, even when it requires us to sacrifice ourselves.
And then comes that infamous word: balance. How much of ourselves should we give away before saying enough is enough? I certainly do not know the answer to this question and honestly I don’t know if I, or anyone, ever will.