I listened to my second favorite passage from all the Narnia books today. This one is from The Horse and his Boy (C.S. Lewis, 1954). My HWN today was seeing parallels between this and my relationship with Christ.

Shasta is a young boy on the run from being sold into slavery, trying to make it to Narnia where he can be free. He has two free Narnian talking horses and a girl, Aravis, as companions. Of course, he encounters several setbacks along the way, and when he finally makes it to Narnia, he runs into Aslan (representing Christ). Before Shasta recognizes Aslan for who He is, and yet feeling very comfortable in His presence, Shasta shares his woes…

“…he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and-“

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “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.”

This passage seems to be the focal point of the whole book. I imagine Lewis had it in mind as he wrote the 150 or so pages before, and it gives meaning to all of them!

I can see a similar conversation taking place between me and Christ when I meet Him after this life — where so many things will make sense in the grand picture. And I look forward to that :)