“Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam, Said Aslan. Welcome, Susan and Lucy, Daughters of Eve. Welcome He-Bever and She-Bever.
His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. They now felt glad and quiet and it didn’t seem awkward to them to stand and say nothing.
But where is the fourth? asked Aslan
He has tried to betray them and joined the White Witch, O Aslan, said Mr. Beaver. And then something made Peter say,
That is partly my fault, Aslan. I was angry with him and I think that helped him to go wrong.
And Aslan said nothing either to excuse Peter or to blame him but merely stood looking at him with his great unchanging eyes. And it seemed to all of them that there was nothing to be said.” C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia
We are reading through CS. LEWIS Chronicles of Narnia right now with the kiddos. Our oldest is even able to read to us. Let me tell you that is such an awesome hurdle in parenting. To the teachers that teach kids to read, Thank-you. It’s a skill I take for granted everyday and so ‘basic’ I struggle understanding how a person teaches it. I had another beautiful parenting moment also when our son said ‘I like reading these because Aslan reminds me of Jesus’. (these gifts feel so far and few between I relish in them, beautiful parenting moments).
Having our oldest say that right after he read this section made me think. It made me think about the character of God. It made me think about the reactions the people in scripture had when there were standing in the presence of God.
Many times I want to make an all encompassing God into something I can rationalize, categorize, and wholly understand. We are his creation, God has created us to understand bits and pieces of his character, however full comprehension of his character or his plan is unattainable.
Many times I want to turn God’s love into something that I can rationalize, strategize, and wholly understand. But I can’t. I love trying to communicate the greatness of his love to others but I will never do it in its entirety during my life time and surely not in one blog post.
This interaction between Aslan (the Christ figure in the narrative) and the children did illustrate a piece of God’s character for me. Christ does not excuse our sin. He does not make light of it or rationalize it way for us like I do to the people around me. He does not say, that is totally okay you were angry you were entitled to be that way because of the others actions. He says nothing. He also does not accuse him. He also does not hurl down condemnation on him for the anger that he felt and extended to his neighbor. Instead, just as Christ did on the cross, he bore the punishment for the anger and sin of all. Our sin was not excused out of pity, Christ bore it on the cross. Christ became our sin on the cross. Christ came as an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes to release us from our debt. We are excused, we are released, for our guilt of sin because of the life, death and resurrection of someone else.
Instead of pointing others to themselves, or the actions of others, or rationalizing their behavior and sin point them to Christ. Remind them they are not loved because of the bad they do or because of the good that they do. Remind them that they are loved in spite of themselves. They are loved because of the great love of their creator has for them.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)
“consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. for just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience fo the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19)
Loved In Spite of Self 