Hearts of Stone
Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.
-C.S. Lewis, “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”
The tale of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” has always stayed in my mind ever since I first heard it on a radio drama CD when I was a kid. Long awaited hopes being fulfilled, sadness blossoming into joy, and a King reclaiming His throne through great sacrifice. These are the hallmark traits of epic stories that stay alive long after children have left childhood.
In the land of Narnia, readers encounter a frightening reality: Citizens faithful to the True King, Aslan, are turned to stone for defying the White Witch’s rule. Narnians that have given up hope of Aslan coming back or are bitter at the harsh reality of living in a land where it is perpetually winter (yet never Christmas!) are typically drawn to the Witch’s employ in hopes of lessening their suffering by treating her as their Queen.
Mr. Tumnus the faun is a reluctant Narnian spy for the White Witch. He holds fond memories of what life was like before the White Witch came to Narnia. Yet, he seemingly has given up waiting for Aslan to return and settled for honoring the Witch as his ruler. However, when he meets Lucy, a human girl from London who wanders into Narnia through a wardrobe, he rebels. Instead of turning Lucy in to the Queen (as he is expected to), he helps her escape back out of Narnia. A spy who rebels at his orders because he cannot bear to earn the name of “traitor to the True King.”
When Lucy brings her siblings back to Narnia, they find out Mr. Tumnus has been taken to the Queen’s courts and turned to stone for allowing her to escape. Yet his story is haunting. Would I join my enemy for the hope that I live to see another day? How long would I stay loyal to the True King before I became frustrated at enduring such harsh circumstances while he seems to be absent?
In the short meeting of Mr. Tumnus, we actually see ourselves quite clearly. We, too, lose heart waiting for our Good King to return. Our hearts are weighed down by the painful realities of life and it hurts to keep hoping in a “One Day Joy” that seems a long way off.
Our Enemy does not want us to reclaim hope and joy in our Long Awaited King. The Enemy’s goal is to make our fears become larger and more real than our confidence in our Savior’s goodness.
What would it be like to live under the rule of a King’s goodness rather than under the fear of an Enemy’s wrath?
We wait in eager anticipation to see how God will show up and answer prayers in grand and powerful ways. Though, as the prayers may remain seemingly unanswered, we can grow bitter and angry at God. We start to self-protect by hardening our hearts against God or the hope-filled thoughts of waiting just one more day to see what He might do.
Our Enemy is Satan and he is the thief of our hope. Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.” Like Mr. Tumnus and the Narnians against the White Witch, we face off every moment of our days against Satan, who does whatever possible to kill our hope, steal our joy, and destroy our faith in Jesus’ love and God’s kindness.
If Mr. Tumnus could reflect during his time as a stone statue, I bet he would be wrestling with shame over his lack of faith in Aslan’s return, frustration at Aslan’s long absence from Narnia, and be reminding himself of the words of The Prophecy with renewed passion.
Whispered amongst each other, the Narnians speak words of a prophecy foretelling the return of the True King, the Great Lion Aslan. Springtime will blossom, justice be upheld, joy will overflow and healing will be complete in his presence. Everything bitter, cruel, unjust and frozen will all be made untrue.
We too live in a world where our hearts are broken over the legacies of dysfunctional families, unfair dealings, unjust discriminations, unending shame and deep sorrow experienced in life. Unsettling fears can weaken our hope and send us on searches for security. And we usually search for security by bargaining with the very things we try to save ourselves from.
We numb ourselves to Fear as we give in to believing the lies Fear speaks over us: You’ll never be accepted, so who cares about making an effort? You’ll have to be perfect in everything, otherwise you won’t be loved. You’ll never be able to create or maintain happiness yourself, so find someone who validates and makes you happy.
For those of us who have hardened our hearts because pain has torn our hearts raw, there is good news of Hope. We too have a prophecy to hold on to in our dark days and darker nights. There is a Good King who does not leave us to cower at Satan’s evil.
John 10:10 doesn’t end with the work of Satan’s destruction. The verse ends with hope from Jesus’ own heart: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
It’s much easier to harden our hearts than to make them soft and alive again after being numbed.
The secret and real joy is that we are not expected to transform our own hearts of stone. Our stone heart statues that were etched by bitterness, sorrow, or fear are brought back to life by the nearness and healing breath of our King. His voice holds words of life. When his voice carries those words and speaks to us, his life giving breath touches the darkest, coldest, stoniest parts of our stories. His tender, loving voice holds the power to crumble the stone and bring us back to life.
Spoiler! Mr. Tumnus is transformed from stone back into a living, breathing Narnian by the very breath of Aslan. Jesus, the King and Savior of our own stories, kindly comes down from his throne to walk among hearts of stone and bring them back to life.
As Mr. Tumnus dances and shouts in celebration of his new life; I pray you and I dance and share shouts of joy to the words of Job 33:4 - “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”