Eyes on the Lion

The literary world is one of my favorite places to step into. I never know what I will find when I travel into Jane Austen’s Regency England, or Martha Finley’s Civil War Era, or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Early America. Oftentimes, I learn historic tidbits I never knew; I cry when they cry; I feel happy when they are happy; I am transported into realms of days gone by. Yet, when I step into the world of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia, I find that I am challenged and encouraged in my Christian walk.

Aslan is my favorite of all the Narnian characters—probably because he is the allegorical form of Christ. Any time Aslan opens his mouth, I can picture the Lord saying the same thing, whether it be in word or on paper. Upon completing Prince Caspian, I discovered the lesson I was to be reminded of through Aslan and the adventures of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy…and at my particular point, Trumpkin was there too.

You probably know the story already; I am far behind most when it comes to Narnia. The Pevensies’ have been taken back into Narnia to help Prince Caspian regain his throne from his evil uncle, Miraz. Trumpkin has been sent to get the children back to the Stone Table and the five of them have gotten lost.

“Look, the Lion!” Lucy cried, “Aslan himself. Didn’t you see?” Her face had completely changed and her eyes shone.
“Where, Lu?” asked Peter.
“Right up between those mountain ashes. No, this side of the gorge. And up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you want to go. And he wanted us to go where he was—up there.”
“How do you know that was what he wanted?” asked Edmund.
“He—I—I just know,” said Lucy, “by his face.”
The others all looked at each other in puzzled silence.

After a vote of 3-2, the children and Trumpkin head in the original way of their plans…and the opposite of Aslan’s. Lucy was unhappy about the whole thing, but she went along. By going the way they did, our Narnian friends encountered a band of Miraz’s men. They were fortunate enough not to be killed.

Lucy has just met with Aslan… “Yes, wasn’t it a shame?” said Lucy. “I saw you all right. They wouldn’t believe me. They’re all so—
From somewhere deep inside Aslan’s body there came the faintest suggestion of a growl.
“I’m sorry,” said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. “I didn’t mean to start slanging the others. But it wasn’t my fault anyway, was it?”
The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
“Oh Aslan,” said Lucy. You don’t mean it was? How could I—I couldn’t have left the others and come up with you alone, how could I? Don’t look at me like that…oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn’t have been alone, I know, not if I was with you.”

Aslan then tells Lucy that she must get the others to follow her again this time. He will go with them, though he will be invisible to all save herself for the present. It takes some doing, but after the encounter they have already had, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Trumpkin go with her.

“And so at last they got on the move. Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan. He turned and walked at a slow pace about thirty yards ahead of them. The other’s only had Lucy’s directions to guide them, for Aslan was not only invisible to them, he was silent as well.
He led them to the right of the dancing trees—whether they were still dancing nobody knew, for Lucy had her eyes on the Lion and the rest had their eyes on Lucy—and nearer the edge of the gorge.
For a long way Aslan went along the top of the precipices. Then they came to a place where some little trees grew right on the edge. He turned and disappeared among them. Lucy held her breath, for it looked as if he had plunged over the cliff; but she was too busy in sight to stop and think about this. She quickened her pace and was soon among the trees herself. Looking down, she could see a steep and narrow path going slantwise down into the gorge between rocks, and Aslan descending it. He turned and looked at her with his happy eyes. Lucy clapped her hands and began to scramble down after him. From, behind her she heard the voices of the others shouting “Hi! Lucy! Look out, for goodness sake. You’re right on the edge of the gorge. Come back—“ and then, a moment later, Edmund’s voice saying, “No, she’s right. There is a way down….

Aslan without hesitation led them to their left, farther up the gorge. The whole journey was odd and dream-like—the roaring stream, the wet gray grass, the glimmering cliffs which they were approaching, and always the glorious silently pacing Beast ahead. Everyone except Susan and Trumpkin could see him now.
Presently they came to another steep path, up the face of the farther precipices. These were far higher than the ones they had just descended, and the journey up them was a long and tedious zigzag. Fortunately the Moon shone right above the gorge so that neither side was in shadow.
Lucy was nearly blown when the hind legs and tail of Aslan disappeared over the top: but with one final effort she scrambled after him and came out, rather shaky-legged and breathless, on the hill they had been trying to reach ever since they left Glasswater. The long gentle slope stretched up to where it vanished in a glimmer of trees about a half mile away. She knew it. It was the hill of the Stone Table.

I don’t know about you, but for me, life can seem like walking up and down those narrow precipices. You have no idea if the way you are going is the right way; your flesh says everything is illogical about the present course. And yet, our Aslan, Christ, wants us to walk it. He wants our eyes to be like those of Lucy’s—fixed on the Lion.

When our eyes are on the Lion, we don’t see the impossibility, the danger, the loneliness of the path he wants us to be on. We only see Him. And by keeping our eyes on Him, we will get to our ultimate destination. It isn’t without the trials and dangers (zigzagging across precipices doesn’t sound safe) but it is a whole lot better of a course than the one we would choose for ourselves. Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and Trumpkin discovered that.

It isn’t easy to keep our eyes on “Aslan.” Trumpkin didn’t believe its existence; Susan was afraid. But a childlike faith like Lucy’s is all we need. I want to encourage you through this passage of Prince Caspian to keep on walking down the narrow passages in your life. Keep your eyes on the Lion from the Tribe of Judah; in Him is security, peace, protection, and the knowledge that He will see us through what looks improbable to the human eye.