Come with back to Narnia and listen in on a conversation:
“How do you know,” he(the Professor) asked, “that your sister’s story is not true?”
“Oh, but—” began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the old man’s face that he was perfectly serious. Then Susan pulled herself together and said, “But, Edmund said they had only been pretending.”
“That is a point,” said the Professor, “which certainly deserves consideration; very careful consideration. For instance–if you will excuse me for asking the question–does your experience lead you to regard your brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which is the more truthful?”
“That’s just the funny thing about it, sir,” said Peter. “Up till now, I’d have said Lucy every time.”
And later in this conversation, the Professor says,
“…a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found to be truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.”
“We weren’t afraid it mightn’t even be lying,” said Susan; “we thought there might be something wrong with Lucy.”
“Madness, you mean?” said the Professor quite coolly. “Oh, you can make your minds easy about that. “One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not made.”
It is a sad state of the affairs of friendships and the church, when we look at someone whom we have trusted, loved and believed in, suddenly doubt because we haven’t had the same experience. And, even sadder, when we are far more ready to believe the Edmunds in our lives than the Lucys simply because we don’t understand their experience and it seems to contradict what we believe and/or have experienced ourselves. When I say, an “Edmund”, I am not necessarily talking about someone who lies, is deceitful and selfish, as Edmund was.
If you have a Lucy in your life who has had, in the past, a record of integrity and close examination of Scripture, maybe you should listen closely when they talk of their encounter with the Holy Spirit. I would be slow to discredit it or put it off as deception or emotionalism. Rationalism is no more dependable, trust me. I’ve been there.
In the next volume of the Chronicles, Prince Caspian, as the Pevensies travel back to Narnia, Peter and Susan again discount Lucy’s profession of having seen Aslan. The children are lost, along with the dwarf, Trumpkin. Lucy, however, eventually spots Aslan and cries out to the others to look. When they do, they can’t see him. The dwarf discounts the existence of Aslan and says she may have seen just an ordinary lion.
Lucy turned crimson and I think she would have flown at Trumpkin, if Peter had not laid his hand on her arm. “The D.L.F. doesn’t understand. How could he? You must just take it, Trumpkin, that we do really know about Aslan; a little bit about him, I mean. And you mustn’t talk about him like that again. It isn’t lucky for one thing; and it’s all nonsense for another. The only question is whether Aslan was really there.
“But I know he was,” said Lucy, her eyes filling with tears.
“Yes, Lu, but we don’t, you see,” said Peter
So, they took a vote. Peter, Susan and Trumpkin voted for following the route Peter chose. Lucy and Edmund, who had learned to trust Lucy, voted to follow Lucy who was following Aslan. 3 to 2, they followed Peter.
And Lucy came last of the party, crying bitterly.
Again, Lucy had seen Aslan yet they didn’t believe her. They forced her, so to speak into making a decision of following what she knew to be true and going it alone, or following them and denying what she saw. I have often gotten the sense here that Peter was a bit frustrated that Aslan would reveal himself to Lucy and not to him. Was there something wrong with him? Why wasn’t he seeing Aslan?
Isn’t that so often the reaction when God reveals Himself to someone and they get excited about it? Why isn’t He revealing Himself to others? And, often, defensiveness rises its ugly head. The accusation, aka, warning, is that others feel you think you’re more spiritual or have a better way; you are saying that Jesus isn’t enough, etc. My admonition to the Peters and Susans is to ask God why. Why aren’t You revealing Yourself to me? Will you show me Your face, Lord? I want to follow You. And, be willing to follow Lucy a while until Aslan is fully revealed.
Lucy has a lesson to learn here as well. As they went on, when night fell. They all dropped off to sleep.
Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name. She thought at first it was her father’s voice, but that did not seem quite right.
She again heard the call again and got up to follow it. Who did she find? Aslan! She buried her face in his mane, kissing him. They enjoyed a good romp together before talking.
For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak. But Aslan spoke.
“Lucy,” he said, “we must not lie here for long. You have work in hand, and much time has been lost today.”
“Yes, wasn’t it a shame?” said Lucy. “I saw you all right. They wouldn’t believe me. They’re all so–“
From somewhere deep inside Aslan’s body there came the faintest suggestion of a growl.
“I’m sorry,” said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. “I didn’t mean to start slanging the others. But it wasn’t my fault anyway, was it?”
The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
“Oh, Aslan,” said Lucy. “You don’t mean it was? How could I–I couldn’t have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don’t look at me like that…..oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn’t have been alone, I know, not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?”
Aslan said nothing.
“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right–somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”
Aslan didn’t really need to tell her, but she knew. She should have obeyed him and followed…even without the others. She would not have been alone–Aslan would have been there. And, Aslan was enough. Not all of us will see God the same way. There will be skeptics. But, we must obey, even if we walk alone. After all, we are not really alone. He is there. And, He is enough.
“Now you are a lioness,” said Aslan. “And now all Narnia will be renewed. But come. We have not time to lose.”
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Hebrews 10:35-39