The Called Ones

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading through "The Chronicles of Narnia". In the second to last book, "The Silver Chair", there was an excerpt that struck me and that I wanted to share. It is taken from the first conversation between Jill and Aslan when Aslan gives the former her task in Narnia.

"Please, what task, Sir?" said Jill.

"The task for which I called you and [Eustace Scrubb] here out of your own world."

This puzzled Jill very much. "It's mistaking me for someone else," she thought. She didn't dare to tell the Lion this, though she felt things would get into a dreadful muddle unless she did.

"Speak your thought, Human Child," said the Lion.

"I was wondering - I mean - could there be some mistake? Because nobody called me and Scrubb, you know. It was we who asked to come here. Scrubb said we were to call to - to Somebody - it was a name I wouldn't know - and perhaps the Somebody would let us in. And we did, and then we found the door open."

"You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you," said the Lion.

"Then you are Somebody, Sir?" said Jill.

"I am."

I thought this was a very good illustration of God's election and salvation of His people. While it seems that we are the ones seeking Him when we first pray for forgiveness, and for Him to live in our hearts and make us His, it is really His work, as we would not pray this prayer if it were not for God originally calling us. We see this truth clearly in the above excerpt, I think, and it helps me to understand the concept.