From time to time I still indulge in reading C. S. Lewis’ Narnian Chronicles. I guess I never grew up in some ways. The Horse and His Boy is one of the books in the series. The central figure is Shasta, a boy who meets a Narnian talking horse. Shasta and Bree meet up with a Narnian mare and a refugee Calormene girl. They embark on a quest to warn the king of Archenland of impending invasion by the Calormene army. At one critical timing point they end up being chased by a lion into the shelter of a hermit’s hut.
Shasta leaves the other three with the hermit while he races on to warn King Lune about the Calormenes. He is given a horse and joins King Lune and his hunting party as they head back to the castle. A mist quickly engulfs them on a mountain pass and Shasta becomes separated from the others.
It is here, alone and afraid, that he begins to bemoan all the bad luck he’s had, including being chased by lions. Worse, he now senses a great breathing presence walking beside him and his horse. When he could bear the suspense no longer he blurts out in almost a whisper, “Who are you?”
The mysterious presence responds, and in the ensuing conversation it reveals that:
“I was the lion…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….”
Shasta asks him once more, “Who are you?”
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 around you as if the leaves rustled with it….
Lewis writes that Shasta was no longer afraid: “But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. But he was glad too.” Of course, this lion is none other than Aslan (the Narnian Christ-figure). After a glance at the great Lion’s face, Shasta slips from his saddle and falls at his feet. He couldn’t say anything and knew he didn’t have to.
Again from the book:
The High King above all kings stooped towards him. Its mane, and some strange perfume and solemn perfume that hung about the mane, was all round him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his face and their eyes met. Then instantly the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared. He was alone with the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. And there were birds singing.
I’ve grown fond of reading The Horse and His Boy. I have never been chased by a lion (praise God). But in looking back I can see God’s intervention in my life, especially when I needed correction. And isn’t that never-ending? One (tough) message I take away from the book is that sometimes the bad things which happen to us are actually for our own good.
The best message of all is that our Great King Jesus Christ is always there with us in our present trials, even if we don’t see Him. We have this incredible promise and hope…one which I cannot read often enough:
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 1 John 3:1-2
Maranatha!
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