Currently I am reading The Horse and His Boy. I won't go into all the details of the book, but for those of you who are not familiar with the series let me give you a very quick background. There is a place called Narnia and there is a Lion named Aslan who is a Christ like figure. There are diffeent characters in the book but, Narnia and Aslan remain constant.
As I was reading chapter 11 today, I was again reminded of Lewis' wonderful way that he could put spiritual truth in a "children's book".What I would like to do is relate what I was reading to our lives.
There is a boy named Shasta who is feeling sorry for himself. We have all been there I'm sure. We feel like the world is against us. That nothing is going right and nobody cares about our situation. When we are feeling like this we think of everything that has gone wrong in our lives, even since we were kids. This is what Shasta is feeling like. At this point Shasta is crying because he is feeling sorry for himself, but then he senses a presence. Lewis puts it like this:
It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about, he stopped crying.
Eventually Shasta starts having a conversation with this presence. He doesn't know what this presence is, but he begins telling it all of his troubles, and how things have gone bad for him. He also tells this presence how lions had been chasing him etc...
The presence lets Shasta know that he was the Lion that was in all these different episodes of his life:
I was the lion who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.
Again you have to remember that in Lewis' Narnia series, the lion Aslan is a picture of Jesus. In this passage we are being reminded that Jesus has always been with us. Think over your life, Jesus has been there with you through it all. He has been orchestrating it to get you to this point of your life. Though you and I may have only seen bad in the past, what we fail to see so often is that Jesus is leading us to something that He has planned for our good. Sometimes that involves difficulty. But remember what is going in our lives isn't just happening by chance. There is purpose behind it. I agree that it doesn't always make sense to us. We are just human and we don't always understand God's ways. But make no mistake, He was there in your past, He is with you right now, and He will be with you in your future.
After his encounter with Aslan, Lewis describes what Shasta feels:
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.
When we encounter Jesus in our lives isn't this what happens. We know He has the power to destroy us if He desired to do so. We know that He would have every right to pronounce judgment on us if He desired. But we realize that He isn't going to. And a new and different sort of trembling comes over us. But it isn't a negative fear but a positive fear. A reverence if you will, what the Bible refers to as "fear of the Lord".
As Shasta finally sees Aslan and His glory, here is what happens:
But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.
The High King above all kings stooped toward him......He lifted his face and their eyes met.
Some day those who have followed Jesus will see Him and what will we be able to do in response to seeing Him? Probably like Shasta nothing but fall at His feet like Shasta did with Aslan.
If you have never read The Chronicles of Narnia series I would encourage you to do so.Though geared towards children, countless adults enjoy these stories. If you have read the series, let me encourage you to go back and reread them as I have. Though I have enjoyed the movies made so far in the series, they don't come close to depicting what you experience when you read the books.
Finally, the next time we are feeling sorry for ourselves, let us remember that Jesus is there with us in our situation.
Troy
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