I have a feeling that in the days to come there will be many Chronicles of Narnia inspired posts appearing here. This shall be the second. :) I read The Magician’s Nephew this week. It’s been YEARS so it really was like reading for the first time, almost. I just love the characters. Reading their story is like spending time with friends. They make me laugh and they teach me things.
C.S. Lewis describes the different perspectives so well and he explains, “For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.” How true that is. Our perception is determined by: 1. Where we’re standing. 2. Who we are. And depending on how those two factors come together, we MAY have a totally false perception of reality. Like Uncle Andrew…
Describing Uncle Andrew, Lewis writes, “Now the trouble about tying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.” You see, suddenly they had found themselves in Narnia and Aslan had just chosen some animals to be Talking Beasts. Everyone but Uncle Andrew saw the beauty, but he was too caught up in being frightened and, long story short, he convinced himself that nothing but roars and growls could come from animals. So, while Aslan was making beautiful music and he and his Talking Beasts had much to say, roars and growls were all Uncle Andrew ever heard.
Later on in the story, Aslan explains, “He has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh, Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!”
And it got me thinking, I wonder how many times in my life I have failed to hear what God was saying because I’d convinced myself that what I was hearing was just something else. I wonder how many times God’s creations (people) have spoken beautiful truths to to me, but I didn’t hear it because I was only expecting growls and roars – so to speak.
I pray that we will continually grow in walking with our spiritual eyes and ears open and expectant. Life is so much fuller and richer when we remember that God gave us those (spiritual eyes and ears) and that He has things to say to us, really and truly.
We are far too good at defending ourselves against all that might do us good and would do well to stop and listen and look expecting Jesus to do things and say things that blow us away.
