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.

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.

"Courage, dear heart"

This is an excerpt taken from "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (from pages 158-60) as the Dawn Treader is fleeing from the Dark Island - the island on which dreams (that is, nightmares) come true. I love this section because it is so wonderful and comforting to see Aslan's love for and care of Lucy and the crew, and through him, God's love and care for us.

"Drinian," [Caspian] said in a very low voice. "How long did we taken rowing in - I mean rowing to where we picked up the stranger."

"Five minutes, perhaps," whispered Drinian. "Why?"

"Because we've been more than that already trying to get out."

Drinian's hand shook on the tiller and a line of cold sweat ran down his face. The same idea was occurring to everybody on board. "We shall never get out, never get out," moaned the rowers."He's steering us wrong. We're going round and round in circles. We shall never get out." The stranger, who had been lying in a huddled heap on the deck, sat up and burst out into a horrible screaming laugh.

"Never get out!" he yelled. "That's it. Of course. We shall never get out. What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that. No, no, we shall never get out."

Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting-top and whispered, "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now." The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little - a very, very little - better. "After all, nothing has really happened to us yet," she thought.

"Look!" cried Rynelf's voice hoarsely from the bows. There was a tiny speck of light ahead, and while they watched a broad beam of light fell from it upon the ship. It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by a searchlight. Caspian blinked, started round, saw the faces of his companions all with wild, fixed expressions. Everyone was staring in the same direction: behind everyone lay his black, sharply-edged shadow.

Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon at the prow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard. Drinian steered after it not doubting that it offered good guidance. But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.

In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, almost before they dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight and were in the warm, blue world again.