A group of dwarves sat huddled together: suspicious, angry, and self-consumed as the stars fell out of the sky and the great Lion, Aslan shut the door on Narnia one last time. When offered delicious food, they shoved it away in disgust, because to them it seemed rotten…vile.
In this scene from C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, Paradise has dawned, but these dwarves are stuck in their own private hell in the middle of it all, a hell they refuse to leave rather than relinquish control to the One who could save them.
Lucy wept for them and begged Aslan to do something. The Great Lion responded that she would now see the limits of His power.
“They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
We live in a world that is cynical, fearful…paranoid to the extreme but as Christ followers we are called to walk through life with a sense of Holy wonder, our eyes wide open to gratefully receive the every day miraculous that still breaks through chaos of The Fall.
I was startled awake yesterday to a moment of the every day miraculous. As I dropped my youngest daughter off for class, I simply paused to watch her go. In that moment of stillness, the Holy broke into the mundane and my heart filled with gratitude and awe.
“Look at her…she is here. She is well. She is mine.”
In spite of all of the chaos and sorrow in the world, in defiance of all the mistakes I have made, in brave, beautiful challenge to all the future may hold, this miracle holds true-
She is here. She is well. She is mine.
This girl who came to me so small and frail at age two. This girl who had no idea of what a mother even was. This girl who escaped out of Haiti beneath a mountain of bureaucracy and botched red tape. This girl who cheated death over and again.This girl who healed and healed and healed…
She is here. She is well. She is mine.
G.K. Chesterton says that Creation after the Fall is akin to a great shipwreck. At first, the devastation is so overwhelming that it seems nothing at all would be saved. Then, bit by bit, a few treasures wash onto the shore: a fork here, a piece of rope there, a fragile teacup somehow intact…All of these these are ordinary items but they are awe inspiring treasures simply because of the miracle of their survival. Chesterton says that as we look around planet Earth, these should be the lenses with which we view it- every sunset, every baby’s cry, each and every passing glimmer of beauty should be appreciated as a great miracle that survived the Fall.
May we cast aside fear and cynicism today to embrace Holy wonder as those who know the truth- the night may be dark, but great joy comes in the morning! (Psalm 30:5) Our Savior will return and when He does, His kingdom of peace will have no end.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah . 9:9
