Dear readers,
I have just finished my second book whilst on the race, and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts I had.
Ahhh, who am I kidding. It’s another book report.
If you have never heard of this book it’s a part of The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis.
As a child in school, I read through all of the books, but when one of my squad leaders asked me what I thought about this particular book it hit me that I retained none of the plot of the book or the ending whatsoever.
So I asked if I could borrow it from her.
Firstly, this might be a preference, but I have a hard time reading most of C.S. Lewis’ work. It may just be that his vocabulary flies high over my head, or my imagination just distracts me from reading the story itself.
Either way.
The general plot of the story is a young boy runs away with a talking horse to Narnia. Along the way, they meet a young princess who is running away herself with another talking horse, and they band together to make it to Narnia safe and sound.
If you know anything about Narnia, you are probably aware of the masterful story-weaving Lewis does with his allegory’s between his fictional world and the Gospel story from the Bible.
His character Aslan, the great Lion, is by far my favorite character. He is a depiction of God, Spirit, and Son, all in one character. He comes into every story at very precise times, and He always leaves you wanting more.
Me personally I long for the next moment in which He arrives.
Throughout The Horse and His Boy, he comes into the story about 5 or 6 times. But He only speaks in two of those times.
One to the boy and one with the girl.
One of the first things Aslan says to the boy is “Tell me your sorrows.”
This hit me so hard in my soul.
Aslan, an image of God. Turns to this little boy and asks essentially “What is wrong?”
Something I have been learning for the past year or so is how to view God as my Heavenly Father. And this scene between Aslan and the boy wrecked me. How awesome is it that that is so true of God?
You don’t have to hide your hurt and sorrow from Him, he longs to see it, to be a part of the conversation. To comfort you in your times of desperation
“Tell me your sorrows.”
Maybe you need to hear that today.
Go now, and run to your Father. Tell Him all that weighs on your heart. He will lift your burdens off your shoulders if you truly give it to Him 100%.
The second thing that stood out to me was that Aslan guided the boy while he was drowsy and riding on the edge of a cliff late at night. “I was quite safe. That is why the lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge at all time.”
Again the imagery of our Father walking by our side and protecting us from the world of danger that surrounds us each day. He does so much on our behalf and we are so ungrateful towards His leading most days.
I pray that we all learn how to see God’s leading in our lives, and thank and love Him more because of it. We really don’t deserve the love he so willingly gives us.
One last moment, it was on the last page of the book actually. I read it over many times before I actually closed the book.
“Aravis had many quarrels and fights with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.”
This is an odd line of the book to stand out so much to me I know. But I love it so so much.
Most of you know this already, but for those of you who don’t, I’m not married.
And lord-willing one day I will be.
But that line to me is such a beautiful picture of marriage. I heard a quote one time I might butcher it so I do apologize now. But it went something along the lines of “Find someone you are willing to fight with for the rest of your life, they’ll make a great spouse.”
Now I do understand that fighting within a marriage is not something to seek out, but as a Christian, I am a firm believer in the idea the love, grace, and forgiveness should be at the center of any relationship, especially a covenant marriage.
And if that is the case, there is nothing on heaven and earth that would ever cause me to break that relationship, I would fight with/for her time and time again.
There are so many good quotes from Lewis’s books, I highly recommend you read them for yourselves if you ever get the chance.
Until next time,
-Mitchell
