I Was the Lion

I’ve been reading The Chronicles of Narnia recently. They were my favorite books growing up. Sometimes they help me when I have trouble sleeping at night. I read this last night and wanted to share it with you…

“Tell me your sorrows,” said the Large Voice.

Shasta…told how he had never know his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.”

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and—”

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.”

And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackal from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses 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.”

When this all started, I found myself asking: Why is this happening? What does God want from me and when will it be over?

See, unlike Shasta and the rest of the protagonists in Narnia, I don’t get to see Aslan face to face, hear his voice, and tremble at his mystery. I won’t feel his roar shake the ground beneath my feet or touch his mane. In any case, I can’t ask God these questions, the questions Shasta got answered. But then again, maybe I don’t need to. The Narnian protagonists got glimpses of Aslan, yes, but I have more than a glimpse. God knelt down and breathed himself into a living, moving collection of words, revealing himself to us for more than just a mere glimpse.

But this I know, God is faithful. Aslan was faithful with Shasta’s wounds, and Yaweh is faithful with mine. I can read his word and see it with my very eyes, savor those words on my lips, and turn them over in my head, knowing that The Great I AM spoke them…with me in mind.

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know,
in paths they have not known, I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
and I will not leave them undone.

Isaiah 42:16

-The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis