I suppose I've always sort of imagined myself to be most like Susan Pevensie: harnessed with logic and sensibility, the one that matter-of-factly offers the scientific explanation for why the river has eroded its way into a gorge over the course of the last 1300 years (much to the annoyance of her siblings), the one that struggles with faith because practicality is so much easier. I admire Susan. I would love to be the beautiful girl that gracefully rides her horse (or bike in my case) in a long flowing skirt through the woods - the skilled archer that carefully aims before launching a deadly arrow into the side of her opponent - the one who kisses Caspian in the end.
Listening to the whispering in my ear, soft but getting stronger...
-mewithoutYou, Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)
Yet as I watched the film, I felt the LORD telling me that He wants to make a Lucy out of me. I am not meant to be the one that runs into battle screaming "FOR NARNIAAAA!!!" with Peter and Edmund, though that would be my preference. I am not meant to be the one who carries a bow and quiver with a magical horn slung over my shoulder. Rather, I am meant to carry a small but treacherous dagger and a diamond flask of fire-flower cordial concealed at my belt. This, for me, is such a strange spiritual undertaking, yet it is one that He keeps confirming. (He must have anticipated the doubts I would still have at the end of the movie, wondering if He was really talking to me or if I was making it up, because there was a beautiful Regina Spektor song at the end of the movie - just in case I didn't quite get it)
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
-Romans 4:16-21
1 comment:
You are a Lucy... overwhelmingly.
But your desire to be Susan makes complete sense, and I will tell you why. This is from one of my favorite passages of my favorite Narnia book (Dawn Treader). Lucy is looking into a magician's book, and it shows her an illustration of herself, only better looking, I guess you could say, and there's a spell to make her look like the picture:
"In the third picture the beauty beyond the lot of mortals had come to her. (...) the real Lucy looked away after a few minutes because she was dazzled by the beauty of the other Lucy; though she could still see a sort of likeness to herself in that beautiful face (...) The it [the picture] changed and Lucy, still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals, was back in England. And Susan (who had always been the beauty of the family) came home from America. The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan only plainer and with a nasty expression. And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy, but that didn't matter a bit because no one cared anything about Susan now."
-- from chapter 10, "The Magician's Book"
So it makes sense that you don't (or didn't) want to be Lucy-- it appears that sometimes even LUCY didn't want to be Lucy, and would have rather been more like Susan. However (and this has always been one of the most unsettling aspects of Narnia, for me at least) remember who doesn't come to Narnia in the end, in The Last Battle, because she is caught up in "lipstick and nylons" and boys and dating: Susan. I think either Peter or Edmund even says that she isn't "a friend of Narnia" anymore. (The film franchise has diverged from the text in terms of Susan's character in a lot of ways, and I don't know how I feel about it yet. I have to think about it some more.)
I love this entry, and I'm embarrassed that my comment is turning out to be equal in length, but here's a little more from the text, so as not to leave you hanging:
"I will say the spell," said Lucy. "I don't care. I will." She said 'I don't care' because she had a strong feeling that she mustn't. But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there i the middle of the writing... she found the great face of a lion (...) He was growling and you could see most of his teeth. She became horribly afraid and turned over the page at once.
(...)
Then her face lit up, for a moment (but of course she didn't know it), she looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture, and she ran forward with a little cry of delight and with her arms stretched out. For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, the Lion, the highest of all High Kings."
I love you Kirby!! let's go to Narnia!
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