Blog Post 41// Playing with a Thunder-storm or Playing with a Kitten
Psalm 128
A song of ascents.
1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children—peace be on Israel.
My favorite book of the Bible is Psalms. I read it over and over again.
If you asked what my favorite fiction book was, I would tell you a whole series: C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
I think it’s a must-read for everyone. Especially believers. I’ve read them several times over since I was a kid. I still read them every few years and started to read them to my kids. They like it so long as I don’t use too many voices. They can’t handle that. I think they are missing out.
There is a lion in the books, Aslan, that represents Jesus. And this lion dies for the traitor, the sinful, the one who had access to everything but chose to snub it all. The traitor’s name was Edmund. And Aslan, the lion, sacrificially dies, having done nothing wrong. It's this picture of the gospel.
Aslan gives his life. He has all the power. No one can take it from him, but he lays it down lovingly, willingly, and then comes back to life.
Spoiler alert, that's the story of one of the books. That’s our story.
Everything in our life is predicated upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We are invited to come and bring the whole of our lives to the one who laid his life down and then took it up again.
So we bring our problems, our pain, our darkness, our sin.
We bring what looks impossible to the God of the impossible.
Impossible is now on the table because of what Christ has done.
In the book, it was Edmund’s wrongdoing that brought into the story the death of Aslan. He had two sisters, Susan and Lucy. After Aslan rises from the dead (come on somebody), even though there is so much to do—the saving of Narnia, the turning of people back from stone into flesh, the restoring of the kingdom, Aslan still takes the time to play with the girls.
I am a guy who can’t handle going near frogs so I definitely have a hard time imagining playing with a lion.
But I can picture this lion. THE Lion. As he sheaths his claws and they're now just velvety. They play and frolic. And every time they jump and bounce, flowers start growing, and it's this beautiful picture of resurrection life and life in the spirit— the love of God shed abroad in their hearts.
“It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.”
-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
What a picture of the kingdom—walking closely with Jesus. Running and not growing weary. Walking and not fainting. Thirsty and then filled to overflowing.