The Lion is Near

For a while now I have been thinking of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for obvious reasons.  The part about Eustace becoming a dragon and then being un-dragoned has always been one of my very favorite parts of the entire series of Narnia books, and now has a particularly special place in my heart.  So, I began reading the book a couple of nights ago (and I am forcing myself not to read the whole thing in one sitting, which I did when Michaela was a baby and I sat up in the bed while she slept next to me...I was just waiting for her to wake up and nurse) and I love that I can read something that I have read so many times before and get something new out of it.

One of their adventures while on this journey eastward happens on an island which is inhabited by invisible people (or creatures).  The invisibles ask a favor of Lucy; they want her to say a spell to make them visible again.  The only person who can say the spell is a girl or the magician who lives there...they can't see him (they made themselves invisible long ago, and him too, as far as they can tell).  So, Lucy goes to find the spell in the great book, in the room that the invisible creatures have told her about.  She flips through the book of spells page by page, intrigued by the beauty of the book, as well as by some of the spells.  One of them is an incantation which will make the one who utters it beautiful "beyond the lot of mortals".  She can see by the pictures (for each spell is illustrated) what would happen if she herself (for she is actually, magically of course, in the pictures) uttered these powerful words.  The end result wasn't pretty.  She was beautiful beyond all others, but the destruction it caused (both in the world and in relationships) was terrible. In spite of the horrible pictures, the beauty of her own face caused her to be determined to say the spell.  However when she returned to the beginning of the page in order to do so, she noticed the face of a lion, the Lion, which she was sure was not there before.  He was roaring, and so frightfully that she immediately turned the page.  

She continues through the book, and finally gets to the spell for making hidden things visible.  She quickly says it, and as soon as the words are out of her mouth the page before her, blank except for the words of the spell, began to be full of colors and pictures.  She imagines that she must have made not only the invisible creatures that asked her to come up to that place visible, but all manner of things that had been invisible.  She hears soft footsteps behind her (her back was to the open door...that is how the book was, and there was nothing she could do about it), turns around, and,"her face lit up till, for a moment (but of course she didn't know it), she looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture," for when she turned she saw Aslan the Lion there with her.  She says to him,"Oh, Aslan...it was kind of you to come."

"I have been here all the time," he replies,"but you have just made me visible."

When I read the part about her turning from the book and lighting up, and being almost as beautiful as the other Lucy, I immediately got tears in my eyes.  When we look to our Lord Jesus Christ (Aslan is a Jesus figure in these stories), when our focus is on him and him alone, we are filled with all that we need.  His light fills us up, till we ourselves light up and shine for him.  And in that light lies a beauty that transends physical beauty...it is the beauty of knowing the love of God. 

My favorite part is the phrase "but of course she didn't know it".  When we are paying attention to the triune God, then we will not be so self-absorbed, so conscious of our appearance.  May it be so.

I also love that he tells her that he has been there all along, she just made him visible.  She says to him not to make fun of her, but he tells her that her spell did make him visible...he obeys his own rules (he is King of everything in this world).  I think that is true with us.  God is with us all the time.  We may just not see him.  But when our eyes are opened, we see that he is right beside us, closer than we ever could have imagined.  Praise him for his love and for his steadfastness.