When I got back from Pakistan I did very little for about a week – not surprising really… But one thing I did do was go to see Prince Caspian, the movie, twice. The second time I took notes and here are some of my thoughts. The four children made me think a lot about different aspects of Christian life.
Lucy poses a major challenge for me in how big her faith is. Near the start of the film the children are in the ruins of the palace at Cair Paravel they used to call home, and they don’t recognise it until Lucy says “Imagine walls, and pillars just there, and a glass roof!” My immediate thought was that Lucy had an incredible ability to see beyond the ruins, the circumstances she found herself in, and see what’s really there. At church the other day we looked at the story of Jesus calming the storm and it was asked why Jesus was able to sleep. The answer was that his world was bigger than the storm. While the disciples saw only the wind and the waves, Jesus was at peace in the knowledge and faith in how big God was. Our challenge is to see beyond the difficulties we find ourselves in, be they financial, relational, stress, loneliness, depression, fear… to see beyond them and see how big God is. Lucy challenges us because she does. She is actively looking for Aslan. Later in the film after Lucy sees Aslan and none of the others do Peter asks “Why wouldn’t I have seen him then?” To which Lucy simply replies “Maybe you weren’t looking.” It is easy to write off Lucy’s faith as that of a child, but we are reminded in Prince Caspian that her faith is not static but growing. She is surprised that Aslan appears to have grown. He replies “Every year you’ve grown; I’ve grown.” As she gets older Aslan also grows which I think is such a beautiful metaphor for letting God grow as your view of the world grows. Too many off us struggle with a big world and a small God, rather than having it the other way round. Only when we believe in the big God do we realise that our problems, the storms we face in life, are so small in comparison.
I also have some thoughts on Susan and Edmund but I will leave these for another time lest this post get any longer!
