Beauty, The Great Story, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

As I journeyed in my car a few months ago, I heard a quote on the radio that I won’t soon forget:

“If you want someone to know the truth, tell them the truth. 

If you want someone to love the truth, tell them a story.”

How much more I remember truths and facts in story form, not in bulleted lists or outline format.  Maybe that is one reason why Jesus used parables so much to teach – because our hearts connect with stories.

So, here is a story that God has used to encourage and refresh me.  I hope it encourages you as well.  It’s from one of my favorite books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis.

For a bit of background, we pick up in the story where Lucy, a young girl, is standing at a reading desk, reading a very large book.  It is the Magician’s Book, and she has been sent into the magician’s house to say a spell to make invisible creatures visible.  In order to get to that spell, she has to turn the pages through many others.  (There’s much more to the story – but that will suffice for now :))

“On the next page she came to a spell ‘for the refreshment of the spirit.’  The pictures were fewer here, but very beautiful.  And what Lucy found herself reading was more like a story than a spell.  It went on for three pages and before she had read to the bottom of the page she had forgotten that she was reading at all.  She was living in the story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real, too.  When she had got to the third page and come to the end, she said, ‘That is the loveliest story I’ve ever read or ever shall read in my whole life.  Oh, I wish I could have gone on reading it for ten years.  At least I’ll read it over again.’

But here part of the magic of the Book came into play.  You couldn’t turn back.  The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned; the left-hand pages could not.

‘Oh, what a shame!’ said Lucy.  ‘I did so want to read it again.  Well, at least I must remember it.  Let’s see…it was about…about…oh, dear, it’s all fading away again.  And even this last page is going blank.  This is a very queer book.  How can I have forgotten?  It was about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill, I know that much.  But I can’t remember and what shall I do?’

And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician’s Book.

She turned on and found to her surprise a page with no pictures at all; but the first words were A Spell to make hidden things visible.  She read it through to make sure of all the hard words and then said it out loud.  And she knew at once that it was working because as she spoke the colors came into the capital letters at the top of the page and the pictures began appearing in the margins.  It was like when you hold to the fire something written in Invisible Ink and the writing gradually shows up; only instead of the dingy color of lemon juice (which is the easiest Invisible Ink) this was all gold and blue and scarlet.  They were odd pictures and contained many figures that Lucy did not much like the look of.  And then she thought, ‘I suppose I’ve made everything visible, and not only the Thumpers.  There might be lots of other invisible things hanging about a place like this.  I’m not sure that I want to see them all.’

At that moment she heard soft, heavy footsteps coming down the corridor behind her; and of course she remembered what she had been told about the Magician walking in his bare feet and making no more noise than a cat.  It is always better to turn around than to have anything creeping up behind your back.  Lucy did so.

Then her face lit up till, 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 outstretched.  For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, The Lion, the highest of all High Kings.  And he was solid and real and warm and he let her kiss him and bury herself in his shining mane.  And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside him, Lucy even dared to think that he was purring.

‘Oh, Aslan,’ said she, ‘it was kind of you to come.’

‘I have been here all the time,’ said he, ‘but you have just made me visible.’”

Two things stood out to me as I read this:

1. Beauty:  Lucy wanted to say a spell earlier in the Book to make herself beautiful.  But what she didn’t know was that her face looked just as beautiful as the girl in the book when she looked at Aslan.  Ah.  How much more beautiful we will be when we look at Jesus, not at ourselves in the mirror. 
2. The loveliest Story:  A story within a story!  In our story, Lucy read a story that refreshed her soul – but she couldn’t remember it.  She could remember that it was about a cup, a sword, a tree, and a green hill.  She wanted to read it again.  And ever since that day, what Lucy meant by a good story is one that reminded her of that story in the Magician’s Book. 

And as the chapter of this book ends, Lucy asks Aslan:

“Shall I ever be able to read that story again; the one I couldn’t remember?  Will you tell it to me, Aslan?  Oh do, do, do.”

Aslan’s reply:

“Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years.”

Maybe it’s just me – but the story that Aslan said he would tell Lucy for years and years sounds remarkably like Calvary, doesn’t it?  A cup of betrayal, a sword to pierce Jesus’ side, a tree on which He was crucified, and a green hill that housed a grave that could not contain Him! 

That Story is the Greatest of all stories. 

In it we see the compassion and love of a God who was willing to give ALL to rescue people who didn’t deserve rescuing.  And any story I hear that speaks of an innocent person sacrificially giving his life for another reminds me of That Story.  It tugs at my heart strings and reminds me of amazing grace.

Amazing grace that Jesus has been telling us about for years and years.