Reminders from Chronicles of Narnia

Happy New Year! A new year, a new beginning, a reminder again of how in Christianity, we can rejoice logically, with strong justification, that we can love our God with all our heart and mind. That our worship of Him as led by the heart need not be divorced from rational, logical thinking from the mind. (Thanks Pearls for the book "Confessions of St Augustine": I've only read the foreword and already it reminded me again of this additional reason to rejoice).

Watching the movie 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' led me to re-reading the books in 'Chronicles of Narnia' again. Have just finished the 3rd book 'The Horse and his boy' and already selected passages have led me to blubbering like an idiot. These are the most moving passages from each book and my thoughts after each passage:

The Magician's Nephew:
""Son of Adam," said Aslan. "Are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done to my sweet country of Narnia on the very day of its birth?"
.....
"Yes", said Digory. He had had for a second some wild idea of saying, "I'll try to help you if you'll promise to help my mother," but he realized in time that the Lion was not at all the sort of person one coul try to make bargains with. But when he had said "Yes", he thought of his mother, and he thought of the great hope he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out:
"But please, please - won't you - can't you give me something that will cure mother?" Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them; now in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.

[Aslan task Digory to get a fruit from a garden that is very, very hard to get to]

Inscription on gate into the garden:
Come in by the gold gates or not at all,
Take of my fruit for others or forbear,
For those who steal or those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart's desire and find despair

[White Witch's temptation of Digory]
"Do you not see, Fool, that one bite of that apple would heal her? You have it in your pocket. We are here by ourselves and the Lion is far away. Use your magic and go back to your own world. A minute later you can be at your mother's side giving her the fruit. Five minutes later you will see the colour coming back to her face. She will tell you the pain is gone. Soon she will tell you she feels stronger. Then she will fall asleep: hours of natural sleep....."

"Oh!" gasped Digory as if he had been hurt, and put his hand to his head. For he now know hat the most terrible choice lay before him.

"What has the Lion ever done for you that you should be his slave?" said the Witch. "What can he do to you once you are back in your own world?".....

"I've brought you the apple you wanted, sir."

"Well done", said Aslan in a voice that made the earth shake. Then Digory knew that all the Narnians had heard those words and that the story would be handed down from father to son in that new world perhaps for ever."

For those in the know, Aslan in Narnia is really the allegory for Christ. I was touched because it immediately showed to me the pettiness of Digory's concerns (although they're godly concerns) in relation to Aslan's plan for Narnia, yet how concerned Aslan was towards Digory's concerns! Luke 12:6-7 "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

There was also no doubt in my mind as I read the story that even if Digory should succumb to temptation and go back to the real world, Aslan will still bring the fruit back some other way to Narnia. (Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?")

It is a reminder of my right attitude towards ministry work. Not doing God's work for me will not impede Him in His ultimate plan, yet sometimes, it is simply given as an opportunity for us to gain His praise that He may be pleased with us and receive our inheritance in heaven. (The story ended with how Aslan gave Digory a fruit from the tree (planted from the fruit Digory picked from the garden) that grew in Narnia.

My last thought was that when faced with temptation, sometimes, we may think that our way (not God's way) is also right (re: Digory's godly concern for his mother when faced with the terrible choice) yet not doing what He had explicitly commanded us to do is definitely not the right way.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
"It was all Edmund's doing, Aslan," Peter was saying, "We'd have been beaten if it hadn't been for him. The Witch was turning our troops into stone right and left. But nothing would stop him. He fought his way through three ogres to where she was just turning one of your leopards into a statue. .... He was terribly wounded. We must go and see him."

Edmund was the traitor that Aslan exchanged his life for, and at the time when Edmund was in the battle for Narnia, they were only told that Aslan was dead. They were unaware that He had already resurrected. What touched me profoundly was that even without the assurance of Aslan being alive, just the knowledge (of Aslan dying for him) alone, had Edmund dedicating his whole life to Aslan's service, even to the death. Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

The horse and his boy:
""I do think," said Shasta, "that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me. Those Narnian lords and ladies got safe away from Tashbaan; I was left behind. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are all as snug as anything with that old Hermit; of course I was the one who was sent on. King Lune and his people must have got safely into the castle and shut the gates long before Rabadash arrived, but I get left out."

And being very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.

What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the Person was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to notice this breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock.

The Person went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming quite sure of it, there suddenly came a deep, rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. He had felt the hot breath of that sign on his chilly left hand.

"Who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.

"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.

"You're not something dead, are you? Oh please - please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!"

"Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face.

"There," it said, "that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows."

Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known 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 the ridesert 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.
.....

"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 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."
....

"Who are you?" asked Shasta.

"Myself:, said the voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again, "Myself", loud and clear and gay: and then the third time "Myself", whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.
.....

"At last they were going in single file along the edge of a precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it. "But of course," he thought, "I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time.""

The story ends with how Shasta, who had always been a slave, turned out to be King Lune's long-lost son. He wouldn't have found his father if he had not gone through all these 'unlucky' events. 1 Thess 5:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Shasta's whining reminds me of my own whining and how I harbour resentment that people always seemed to have life easier, smoother and more blessed than I. It's a reminder for me to trust that His will is done in every situation, whether good or bad, and that they are really worked for my ultimate good.