Thoughts From Clive Staples

If I could explain how much of a literary crush I have on C.S. Lewis I would (see quote on the blog title…). But, words could not do it justice so I won’t even try. A few years ago I made my way through some of C.S. Lewis’ non-Narnia books like Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters (amazing book!), but I realized I had not read his popular Chronicles of Narnia series. Well, with the wonderful Kindle and the dangerous “One-Click Buy” option from Amazon I have been working my way through the series. I read this last night and just put the book (well, eBook) down and let it simmer. Sorry, it’s kind of long…

[To set the scene…Shasta is a small boy who is riding a horse in the dark next to something he can’t see and he thinks it is a ghost.]

“Once more he [Shasta] felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”

Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so 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 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 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.”

“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”

“It was I”

“But what for?”

“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.””

What a great picture of God. I realize this isn’t a “What I did in Haiti today” blog post, but I wanted to share this with all 18 of you people J

Oh, and this excerpt is from The Horse and His Boy. Buy it. Buy the series. Read them. That is all.