The presence of the Lion

In The Horse and His Boy, on of Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, he tells the story about a boy and girl and their respective horses who are trying to escape the evil land of Calormen and flee to Narnia. At certain points along the way the children and their horses sense an imminent threat from one or more lions. In each of these encounters they instinctively sense that the lions' presence spells harm or disaster. They fear for their lives. In the first instance Shasta and his horse are chased by what seem to be two lions. The harder they gallop the closer the lions seem to draw. What they don't realize is that the lion's pursuit is all for the point of drawing them closer to their future traveling companions -- Aravis and her horse Hwin. Had not the lions (we learn later it was just one lion, Aslan, whose presence felt like two lions) given chase, the horse and his boy may never have found their companions nor Narnia.

Life is filled with scary moments. We seem to be surrounded by a lot of them these days. Some of them feel like lions ready to pounce on us. We fear for our lives. Our prayer might be to cry for rescue -- to deliver us from the feline pursuit. But maybe it is the pursuit that is driving us to something or someone greater. A friend of mine tells of working in a "hostile environment" and feeling like there was nothing he could do but run. He did. He left the job without any prospects. He wondered where God was in it all. But then came the new job and though it didn't pay as much money, he found a lot of good people. Good people were more important. And he realized, in hindsight, that he was being chased by the Lion into a new group of work companions.

Sometimes when we're afraid, it's not such a bad thing. It's a scary thing, but not a bad thing. "He's not safe," said Mr. Beaver, "but he's good." Scary times are the times to trust the presence of the Lion who may be chasing us to Narnia.