Lucy & The Magician - Doubting Our Provider

Here is another excerpt from "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (pages 139-141). It begins after Lucy climbs the stairs in the magician's house and makes the Duffers (or "Dufflepuds", as they are later known) visible again. Aslan briefly appears and introduces her to the magician himself. This excerpt is taken from the conversation between the Magician and Lucy over dinner after Aslan departs.

"When will the spell work?" asked Lucy. "Will the Duffers be visible again at once?"

"Oh yes, they're visible now. But they're probably all asleep still; they always take a rest in the middle of the day."

"And now that they're visible, are you going to let them off being ugly? Will you make them as they were before?"

"Well, that's rather a delicate question," said the Magician. "You see, it's only they who think they were so nice before. They say they've been uglified, but that isn't what I called it. Many people might say the change was for the better."

"Are they awfully conceited?"

"They are. Or at least the Chief Duffer is, and he's taught all the rest to be. They always believe every word he says."

"We'd noticed that," said Lucy.

"Yes - we'd get on better without him, in a way. Of course I could turn him into something else, or even put a spell on him which would make them not believe a word he said. But I don't like to do that. It's better for them to admire him than to admire nobody."

"Don't they admire you?" asked Lucy.

"Oh, not me," said the Magician. "They wouldn't admire me."

"What was it you uglified them for - I mean, what they called uglified?"

"Well, they wouldn't do what they were told. Their work is to mind the garden and raise food - not for me, as they imagine, but for themselves. They wouldn't do it at all if I didn't make them. And of course for a garden you want water. There is a beautiful spring about half a mile away up the hill. And from that spring there flows a stream which comes right past the garden. All I asked them to do was to take their water from the stream instead of trudging up to the spring with their buckets two or three times a day and tiring themselves out besides spilling half of it on the way back. But they wouldn't see it. In the end they refused point blank."

"Are they as stupid as all that?" asked Lucy.

The Magician sighed. "You wouldn't believe the troubles I've had with them. A few months ago they were all for washing up the plates and knives before dinner: they said it saved time afterwards. I've caught them planting boiled potatoes to save cooking them when they were dug up. One day the cat got into the dairy and twenty of them were at work moving all the milk out; no one thought of moving the cat. But I see you've finished. Let's go and look at the Duffers now they can be looked at."

This excerpt reminds me of God's commands to His people. "...we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28); yet how many times do we distrust Him and/or demand our own way even though it would be much harder and more painful? This excerpt reminds me how our behavior at our doubting moments must appear from the other side of Heaven. It reminds me that we must trust God, no matter how events appear to us, knowing that He works all things together for our good, not our destruction. How patient, and loving, and good our Father is to put up with our stupidity and constantly lead us as a Shepherd leads his sheep! A good reminder and lesson for us always.