Our God Is Everywhere!

Good evening fine ladies and handsome gentlemen, it is great to have you here at The Better Half of Me! I hope this post finds you well. Over my extensive Christmas break from which I created this very blog, I have re-indulged in the well known book series called The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I started reading the seven book series over the summer and then stopped about three quarters into the third book when this past semester picked up. Well I picked the books back up over this break and I haven't been able to put them down.

C.S. Lewis as some of you who know me, know he is a man crush of mine. He comes second to Jon Foreman (Shame on you if you don't know who he is..look him up!). The dude has an amazing story and God greatly gifted him with brains, and a way to connect with people through writing. Lewis actually wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as bed time stories to try and describe the character of God to his children. I love reading these books not only because they are entertaining, but there are so many parallel's with scripture. It is super neat to be reading and realize as you're reading that Lewis is actually retelling a story from the Bible through the characters and circumstances in the book. As I was finishing the third book in the series called The Horse and His Boy, there was a parallel with the Bible that really spoke to me.

To catch you up with this book so my point will be clear, there is a boy in the beginning who washes up to shore in a boat. A mean man takes him in and makes him his servant boy. Years later a higher official rides in on a horse late one night and talks to the boys master. The boy, curious of this officials visit, listens in on the meeting and discovers the official wants to buy the boy off his master. The boy, not knowing whether or not the official is good or evil, decides to run away. He decides to run to the stable first. When he gets there, he finds the officials horse. To his amazement the horse can talk, and also to the boys amazement the horse want's to run away from his master, the official. Together they make their journey to Narnia. Along the way, they meet a girl who is also running away..she too is heading for Narnia. Her horse can speak as well. Hang in there my friends, I promise this is leading somewhere... Throughout their journey to Narnia, they have three encounters with lions. One encounter was with a pack, and the other were individual encounters. On one of these encounters, the girl is clawed on her back in an attempt to get away from the lion. Another encounter includes the boy and girl and their horses being chased through the forest by a pack of lions.

OK OK....Now that I have kind of caught you up, I can finally make my point..here we go, buckle your seat belt. (SPOILER ALERT) The gang eventually makes it to Narnia, but right before they do, Aslan confronts them for the first time(Aslan is the big lion that is in charge of Narnia. His character parallels with Jesus). When the boy and the girl begin to tell Aslan about their encounters with the other lions he stops them. He says to them, "There was only one lion, and that lion was me. All of the encounters you had were with me. I was there to protect you in your journey home." Ok, so these weren't word for word because I returned the book to the library, but that is the gist of what Aslan said. This dialogue that Lewis portrays through Aslan and the boy and girl is a beautiful parallel to remind us that God is all around us. He is guiding and watching over us as we go about our life here on earth. It is a reminder that he is for us and not against us! So many times when things don't go the way we have planned them, we start to believe the lie that Satan throws at us that God is against us and enjoys to see us in pain, or not succeeding. THAT IS FALSE! Our God is for us! He has a plan and a future for us, as well as hope as it says in Jeremiah 29:11. Sometimes things don't go as planned, or sometimes we are in pain like the girl who was clawed by Aslan, but sometimes that is what it takes for us realize that we have gone astray from our creator and God that loves us more than we can imagine. If being hurt is what it takes to get my eyes back on God, then that is a small price to pay to be in an unfailing relationship with the very being that created me and everything around me...the very being that I will have the privilege of spending the rest of eternity getting to know. Pain in temporary, God and his plans are eternal. Just like Aslan led the gang to Narnia, God leads us whether or not we are aware of that at the time. HE IS FOR US AND NOT AGAINST US!

Thanks for stopping by guys, I know it was long this time. I apologize if you needed to take a nap halfway through to rest your eyes, but hopefully this encouraged you in some way. Stay tuned for more posts from The Better Half of Me and make sure to follow me if you like what you hear. Ok im leaving now for real.

-R