“Then [Lucy’s] 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 stretched out. 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.”
- The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis

I really love C.S. Lewis’ imagery of Aslan, the Lion-Savior of The Chronicles Of Narnia. By showing us how Christ may have interacted with a world of talking animals, Lewis gives us a better picture of how He interacts with us in this world.

This passage out of The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader excites me, because that is exactly what happens when we see God.

Let me back up a second and give this quote some context. Lucy is in an enchanted tower, reading through a spell book in hopes of finding a spell that will make some invisible group of people visible once more. As she reads through this book, she encounters a spell that will make her beautiful. In fact, it was “An infallible spell to make beautiful her that uttereth it beyond the lot of mortals.” The magical properties of the spell book allowed Lucy to see what it would be like to be that beautiful. In fact, the vision was so enticing that Lucy said, “I will say the spell…I don’t care. I will.” Even though she had a strong feeling that she shouldn’t, she desired that beauty, a beauty that would alienate the people closest to her and destroy the intimate relationships she had with others.

Lucy managed to escape the temptation of saying that spell, and when she finally found the spell to make visible things that are invisible, Aslan appeared (because He was invisible).

Now, the interesting thing came from Lewis’ description, that for a moment, Lucy looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy. This look was captured in that moment that Lucy saw Aslan. Seeing the King of kings made her beautiful – within her heart, and as a result, it overflowed to her physical appearance.

I was talking about this a little bit with one of my roommates the other night. God brings out the very best in all of us – our beauty, our strength, our abilities, our talents – because He gave them all to us first, and He delights to develop those things within us. In reflection of God’s character, we also bring out those things in others. Men are stronger for the women they love. Women do all they can to be beautiful for the men that they love. And so it is when we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When we see Him, our countenance reflects the beauty of God. It’s so exciting to find God’s fingerprints on everything, because it gives us hope and courage. This was a bit random, but I hope that this encourages you throughout this week!