He Understands Our Sorrows

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

In the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia, the four Pevensie children find their way into Narnia from the house of a professor with whom they are staying. The sixth book, The Magician's Nephew, tells the story of how that same professor first discovered how to go to Narnia when he was a boy named Digory.

But before he got to Narnia, he and his friend Polly had visited another world. Because Digory had been arguing with Polly, and because he wanted to have his own way, he rang a bell in that world, which awoke a powerful witch-queen. That witch accompanied Digory and Polly back to their own world. Then, though they didn't know they were going there, she went with them to the brand new world of Narnia just as Aslan, the Lion who is C. S. Lewis's Christ figure, was creating it. There in Narnia the witch-queen runs off into the woods.

Digory's mother was sick and dying back in his own world. As he sees how rich the possibilities are in the new young world of Narnia, Digory decides to ask Aslan if he can have fruit from this new world. He hopes this fruit will be magic and revive his mother. But when he gets to where Aslan is conferring with the Talking Animal leaders about the evil that has entered the new world, Aslan does not answer Digory's request directly. Instead, he asks Digory to tell how he came to bring the witch into Narnia. Then he asks Digory another, unexpected question.

"Son of Adam," said Aslan. "Are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done to my sweet country of Narnia on the very day of its birth?"

"Well, I don't see what I can do," said Digory. "You see, the Queen ran away and—"

"I asked, are you ready?" said the Lion.

"Yes," said Digory. He had had for a second some wild idea of saying, "I'll try to help you if you'll promise to help about my Mother," but he realized in time that the Lion was not at all the sort of person one could try to make bargains with. But when he had said "Yes", he thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came into his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out:

"But please, please—won't you—can't you give me something that will cure Mother?"

Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great front feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

We are so often like Digory. We have many sorrows in our lives. But sometimes when we take them to Jesus and ask him to fix the problems, we don't receive the answer we hope for. Instead, he asks us to do something else.

So often we think in those cases that God doesn't care. But we have forgotten to look into his face. His tears are bigger even than ours.

In The Magician's Nephew, when Digory rectifies the wrong he has done, he also receives the help he needs for his mother. Aslan is able to work both things out. And so it is for us with Christ. We can trust that he understands our sorrows. We can trust that even while he asks us to do what we need to do, he will heal our griefs in some way. He is sorrier about our sorrows than we are ourselves.