He Is Always There

(This post is part of a series of posts about The Chronicles of Narnia.)

Near the end of The Horse and His Boy, the boy Shasta ends up riding alone (on a non-talking horse) on a mountain pass in a very dense fog. Suddenly he becomes aware that Someone else is walking beside him, but Shasta is unable to see who it is. He is only aware from the breathing that the presence, a person or a creature, is very large. Shasta is quite frightened, but eventually he dares to speak to the unwelcome fellow traveler.

"Who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.

"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing....

"I can't see you at all," said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, "You're not—not something dead, are you? Oh please—please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!"

But the creature next to Shasta breathes gently and warmly on him, and asks Shasta to tell what his sorrows are. And Shasta proceeds to relate all the bad things that have happened to him, including several encounters with lions, who chased him and his friends.

"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.

"Don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said Shasta.

"There was only one lion," said the Voice.

"What on earth do you mean? I've just told you there were at least two the first night, and—"

"There was only one: but he was swift of foot."

"How do you know?"

"I was the lion." And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who 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 Horses new strength of fear for the last mile so that 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."

All the time that Shasta had thought that he was alone, Aslan the Lion had been with him, watching over him. At one point Shasta had had to spend a night alone among the tombs, but a cat had shown up and stayed with him; that had been Aslan. As a baby Shasta had been set adrift in a boat; Aslan had pushed the boat to shore where a man had found him. Aslan's care for him had been constant, even though Shasta had not realized it.

Not only was Aslan's care for him continuous, but Aslan's patience was also endless. Aslan showed up next to him, but he waited for Shasta to speak first. Shasta asked who he was. What was Aslan's response? "One who has waited long for you to speak."

So it is with Christ and us. His care for us is never-ending. Even when we think he is absent, he is still there, watching over us. We may turn our backs on him, but he does not turn his back on us.

Who is Jesus Christ? He loves us and wants us to come to him. He is one who has waited long for us to speak.