The Magician's Nephew tells the beginning of the story - including the creation of Narnia. There are insightful parallels to Genesis here, but what struck me most this time was a comment about the Jesus-character: a lion named Aslan.To give a little background, an English boy named Digory arrived just in time to watch Aslan create a perfect new world. This Lion could surely heal his dying mother back in London, Digory realized!
Alas, an evil character had accidentally arrived in Narnia along with Digory - brought by him (not without fault) from another world. When he approached Aslan about healing his mother there were other things that had to be taken care of first.
"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.
"My son, my son," said Aslan. "I know. Grief is great... Let us be good to one another. But I have to think of hundreds of years in the life of Narnia..." (chapter 12)
As this part of Aslan's (actually, Jesus's) character played out, the tears came to my eyes as well. Here Elsa and I were after two full years of intense doctoring and treatments - riding down to yet more appointments.
I have always known that God is powerful. He could heal us instantly if He chose. Yet as I have waited and entered one new trial after another, too often I find myself just looking down at His great powerful "feet" and "claws."
Suddenly on this drive I looked up with Digory and saw God's tears. For a moment I realized He really is sorrier about my pain than I could even be. He created this world to be perfect. He wanted to give me a perfect body to live in a perfect world - in perfect communion with Himself. But evil and sin entered to mar it all.
But we are not left without hope. Aslan told his new creatures that evil would come, but "I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself." And Jesus did just that on the cross.
And yet, we are still ill. We ask God for His healing. And we still have to wait.
Digory also had to wait; not knowing if Aslan would ever heal his mother. And Digory had to act - to fulfill a challenging assignment to help protect Narnia from the evil one. He had to pluck a special apple from a certain tree far away and bring it back to plant in Narnia.
Once successfully planted, the tree that grew was to keep the evil character away from Narnia. Since she also had traveled to the original tree and had stolen an apple for herself, Aslan explained,
"...that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after."
Oh, how glad Digory then was that he had resisted the strong temptation to eat one himself, or even to sneak back to his mother with it instead of bring the fruit back to Aslan!
But what about his mother? Did the waiting ever come to an end? Did Aslan really care about one or two hurting people in particular?
For those answers, I'll let you read (or listen to) the story for yourself. :-)
And what about my illness? And what about your pain, loneliness, loss...?
Let's keep trusting and obeying, knowing that God hurts over it even more than we do. And we'll know the rest of the story... one day.
(Photos from the HarperCollinsPublishers hardcover edition of The Magician's Nephew)
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