God's Protection

The other night, it was really windy here while I was trying to fall asleep. I had been worried and stressed and overwhelmed by all the things I had no control over that have been making my life hard to bear. But then, listening to the wind outside--quite strong wind, as it turned out--I was reminded... that it is God, the Creator, and the Master of the elements, who is in control.

It's always humbling to be reminded of that. And it is strangely reassuring to be humbled in that way. To remember how little I know and how little I can see and understand, while God knows all things and sees all things and understands all things. To remember how many blessings I have received because I have turned to God in my afflictions, and how much strength and faith I have gained because of it. So maybe I have to deal with a lot because of others' poor choices--but God is still there; He still is in control; He still loves me. [...]

Thinking of these things, I wondered why people worry so much. Why I worry so much, even though I have seen God's hand in my life so many times. It brought to mind one of my (many) favorite Bible stories. Elisha has been bringing warnings from God to the king of Israel, to protect the Israelites from the attacking Syrians, and the king of Syria, learning that Elisha is a prophet and can tell the kind of Israel what his (the king of Syria's) plans are, wants his people to go bring Elisha to him. Then:

Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

God is all-powerful. He is there. Even when bad things happen, or when things don't make sense, God is still there. He doesn't have to do anything miraculous to prove He is there; He shows us His love and blesses us, whether our eyes are opened to see that or not.

And now for some Narnian connections (to help us think about God's influence in our lives in a little bit of a different way). It is very profound how Aslan is involved in each of the Chronicles--but always in a different way. And each time there seems to be reason to fear--even when people(/creatures) are hurt and bad things happen--Aslan is never worried, never at loss for what to do. He is always in control, always the one in charge, even when it doesn't look like it. Even when it doesn't seem to make sense why he lets bad things happen. To give an example from each of the books, going chronologically:

MN: Jadis eats an apple, and Digory is afraid the apple he has picked for Aslan will be no good. But Aslan was in control all along--the apple Digory picked will protect Narnia because Jadis would eat that other apple.

LWW: The White Witch kills Aslan in Edmund's place, and she thinks she has won. But Aslan was in control all along--there is a law that was set up before the world was formed that brings about Aslan's return to life.

HHB: Shasta finds himself in all sorts of trouble and feels he has had really bad luck to have run into so many lions--until he learns that Aslan was the one lion he had met, and that through his and Aravis's troubles he was able to warn his father in time of the planned attack of Rabadash. Aslan had been in control all along.

PC: When Lucy sees Aslan, she expects him to come charging in and fix everything, like he did in LWW, but instead, he sets her to an uncomfortable task and she and the others must follow him in faith, not knowing at all what will happen by following him. And then he sends the boys off to deal with things on their own. Until Aslan comes back and vanquishes the Telmarine army, Aslan is kind of in the background--almost not there at all, from the boys' perspective. The boys don't know when he'll be back, and don't know how much they will have to fight on their own. Yet Aslan has been doing the work that needed to be done, and he comes back to the boys on time. And he was in control the entire time.

VDT: Eustace becomes a dragon because of his own selfishness (and because he happens to be in the right place to turn into a dragon while thinking dragonish thoughts). As I realized today, Aslan didn't stand in Eustace's way--he hadn't warned him. He let Eustace experience the consequences of his own choices. And when Eustace had begun to really change inside, Aslan was there to help--to free him from the dragon skin that Eustace could not free himself of. Aslan was in control the entire time.

SC: Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum keep on muffing the signs that Aslan gave them to follow. Yet Aslan keeps on warning them, directing them, and helping them so that eventually--despite the mistakes they make and the many times they have to correct themselves--they are able to rescue Rilian and defeat the Lady of the Green Kirtle and make it back to Narnia safely.

LB: Tirian suddenly finds himself in the middle of a huge conspiracy between the Calormenes and Shift the Ape. Narnia is falling apart; his friends and subjects are being killed. It seems that all is lost as the loyal Narnians take a last stand in front of the stable. Yet--when they are thrown through the stable door, when Aslan commands Narnia to come to an end, it turns out that Aslan was in control all along. It didn't matter that Narnia was falling apart--Aslan knew it would, and it was time for that world to come to an end. And those loyal to Aslan came home with him forever.