Oh, Aslan

I watched Prince Caspian from the Chronicles of Narnia series on DVD last night for the first time. For other Lewis enthusiasts, this post is several months out of date. But I have a 2 year old and 3 year old, and getting to the movies while they are still in the theater doesn't happen very often for me anymore. So I get my movie epiphanies after they are released on DVD. And I had some thoughts after watching Caspian last night.

First, I read the book again in preparation for the movie and was ticked off for the first half of the movie by all of the out of sequence events and plain old inaccuracies. I calmed down around the time of the scene with the hag and werewolf as they tried to summon the white witch. That's where things almost seemed to get back to Lewis' story.

But one thing has gotten me thinking, and it really transcends any petty discrepancies over when Peter got where when and who was Lucy with when Caspian met the werewolf and so forth. The book and the movie both resound with the idea that Aslan wasn't there when they needed him. He was far off, at times visible, but even then only barely so. And there was a great amount of defeat before he swooped in and made things right.

And this really resonated with me. He didn't come in and save the day. They woke up the next morning and the nightmare of the night before wasn't a dream. It hadn't resolved with the new day. And when that happens, what do you think of Aslan? It's natural to look for help elsewhere. It's natural. It is the nature of man, our depraved nature, to look for help elsewhere when we do not perceive that God is coming to our aid. We all are tempted to look to our version of the white witch in those moments.

Aslan does show up. And his reaction in the book to Lucy not following him, when she barely saw him and couldn't convince the others, is really thought provoking. He rebuked her. In contrast, I defend her--"Aslan, she's the youngest of them all. They wouldn't listen. How could you hold little Lucy accountable for not following you when she was against such odds?!"

But the interesting thing is that Aslan doesn't let her off the hook. She was supposed to follow him. In the midst. Down the steep path that she couldn't even detect from the rocky overlook. Without her siblings. She was STILL supposed to follow him. And later when only Lucy could see him and the rest couldn't, they were all still supposed to follow him. Even when he was obscure and undiscernable, they were supposed to follow him. Why didn't he make himself easier to see and follow?!

That was profound to me. I am still thinking about it tonight. And I will likely meditate on it for a while longer. I am left with the idea that faith is more than believing that he will come in and save the day. Real faith is following him when you can not see him, can not discern his plan, and when the day before past without him showing up in the ways I thought he surely would. Will I follow him when I wake up on that morning?