chapter eleven

Recently I've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia to my fam the evenings I'm home. We finished "The Horse and His Boy" {one of the best ;)} last night. In this passage, Lewis paints such a picture of God's loving kindness in the seemingly "bad" or discomforting things in life.

Shasta is wandering alone at night in a strange country. He can't see where he's going in the mist and has no idea where he is. A stranger falls into step beside him and they have a conversation:

" [Shasta] 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 the dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the 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 thier goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had anything to eat.

'I do not call you unfortunate.' said the Voice.

'Don't you think it was very bad luck to meet so many lions?' asked Shasta.

'There was only one lion.' said the Voice...

...'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 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.' "