Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

I love reading. It's a leisure that gives me room to escape from the hectic and busyness of the day into a world that requires only imaginations.

Imagination is what The Chronicles of Narnia demands if you were to have a good reading time. That's not difficult, but it also requires your heart to be open, because this supposedly suited-for-children series is not what it seems. May a times it has touched my heart deeply.

The 3rd of the Chronicles, titled "The Horse and His Boy" is one of my favourite, besides the most well-known "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

There's this part in the story that I want to write down here. At this point of the story, the boy Shasta has been through a lot of adventures and long journey to get to Archenland. He finally managed to fulfil part of his mission of informing King Lune of Archenland of the incoming attack from Rabadash the Calormene. However, after meeting up with the king, Shasta becomes lost in a fog and separated from the King's procession. After continuing blindly for some way, he senses that he has been joined in the darkness by a mysterious presence. Though terrified by knowledge that a being that was walking beside him, he started to engage in conversation with it. Shasta confides what he sees as his many misfortunes in his life and this journey, including being chased by lions on two separate occasions, and concluding with "If nothing else, it was bad luck to meet so many lions." His companion then proclaims himself as the single lion that Shasta has encountered in his travels:

"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the tombs. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at night, to receive you."

[Shasta] "Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"

"It was I."

"But what for?"

"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell you no one any story but his own."

"Who are you?" asked Shasta.

"Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again, "Myself", loud and clear and gay, and then the third time, "Myself", whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.

Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, not that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.

The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing he had not been noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.

He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at his feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.

There's nothing and no words that are accurate enough to describe that feeling of being in awe when I read this chapter. I could almost identify with Shasta when he slipped off his horse and bowed down at Aslan. It's that deep feeling inside when you're in the presence of God, knowing that He holds you dearly to Himself, knowing that your life was and is in His sovereign hands, and so will your future be. It's that feeling of having your mind blanked out but your heart is doing all the thinking, thinking of His awesomeness and the beauty of His love...