November 2014

In C.S. Lewis’s book, Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children return to Narnia a second time many years after they had been kings and queens in Narnia. They are on a mission to find Prince Caspian, but find themselves lost in the woods as the landscape has changed since their last visit. The text reads,

“I’m sorry,” said Peter. “It’s my fault for coming this way. We’re lost. I’ve never seen this place in my life before.”…

“I’m not sure the High King is lost,” said Trumpkin. “What’s to hinder this river from being the Rush?... even if this is not the Rush, it’s flowing roughly north and so it must fall into the Great River anyway.”…

“Look! Look! Look!” cried Lucy.

“Where? What?” asked everyone.

“The Lion,” said Lucy. “Aslan himself. Didn’t you see?” Her face had changed completely and her eyes shone.

“Do you really mean---?” began Peter.

“Where did you think you saw him?” asked Susan.

“Don’t talk like a grown-up,” said Lucy, stamping her foot. “I didn’t think I saw him. I saw him.”

“Where Lu?” asked Peter.

“Right up there between those mountain ashes. No this side of the gorge. And up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you want to go. And he wanted us to go where he was – up there.”

“How do you know that was what he wanted?” asked Edmund.

“He—I—I just know,” said Lucy, “by his face.”

The others all looked at each other in puzzled silence.

“Her Majesty may well have seen a lion,” put in Trumpkin… But it needn’t have been a friendly and talking lion…”

“Oh, don’t be so stupid,” said Lucy. “Do you think I don’t know Aslan when I see him?”…

“The only question is whether Aslan was really there,” [said Peter].

“But I know he was,” said Lucy, her eyes filling with tears.

“Yes, Lu, but we don’t, you see,” said Peter.

Lucy’s brothers and sister chose to be skeptics and not believe that Aslan was there to guide them. As a result they go in the wrong direction. Have others been cynical about your stories of Jesus’ work and guidance in your life? How did you respond? Have you acted like the “grown-up” and questioned the child-like faith of a friend and their experience with Jesus? If we really believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd then we should expect Him to make Himself known to us and be listening and watching for Him expectantly.

“But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."
JOHN 10:26-28 (ESV)

¹ Lewis, C.S., Prince Caspian. New York: Harper Trophy, 1994, pp. 129-133.