As I continue in my Narnia series, I re-read The Horse and His Boy. Chronologically, this is the 3rd installment in the Chronicles of Narnia and one I have come to love a great deal. For the story alone is rich with excitement, battles, and emotion, but form a Christian perspective, it takes on another dimension.
At the start we are introduced to Shastsa, an orphan being raised by a fisherman on the coast of Calormen, a neighboring nation to Narnia. Shasta’s life is hard and filled with work and very little else. He joins up with Bree, a Narnian talking horse, who himself is making an escape to his home in Narnia and decides to take Shasta with him. Along the way, they meet Hwin, another Narnian horse, and Aravis, a young Calormen princess, seek to escape being married to a man VERY late in years.
We get to share their adventures and watch as they all learn lessons about their lives and how their lives affect others. But the reoccurring theme throughout the entire book, is lions. On one leg of their journey they are chased by two lions, on another Shasta encounters a lion-like cat that protects him, and there is another lion attack that has very humbling results. And of course, they meet Aslan, King of Kings and Son of the Most High King. And this brings me to my favorite passage of the book, if not, the most overt Jesus allegory of Aslan himself.
Shasta is cold and hungry, worn out by his long journey. And meets Aslan face to face. When Aslan inquires of Shasta’s downtrodden visage, Shasta proclaims, “I am the most unluckiest person in the world.” To which Aslan replies, “I do not call you unfortunate.” And Aslan goes on to say,
“I was the lion that forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat twho comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horse the new strength of fear for the last mile so 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 midnight, to receive you.”
And at this, I think back on my own life and see the Hand of God move and guide me. In my worst times, times of loss, times of great grief, times of fear, and worry, and of pain, I knew my God, my Lion, was guiding and protecting me.
The Horse and His Boy, is a great story in and of itself. But for the Believers, it’s a great reminder that our Lion is watching over us.
Other C. S. Lewis Recommendations
