I Was the Lion

To my daughter,

                Many years ago I read the Chronicles of Narnia to you. In the third book, The Horse and His Boy, the young boy Shasta escaped from his miserable life as a servant to a mean man and ran away with a talking horse named Bree. They joined up with a girl Aravis and her talking horse, Hwin, who was trying to escape a forced marriage. The story recounts their adventures trying to get from Tashbaan to Archenland, and on that journey they had some scary encounters with lions. After finally making it to Archenland, just in time to warn the king there that an army was coming to attack, Shasta got separated from the group and found himself on a trail alone in the night. He gradually realized that something was following him in the dark which of course frightened him terribly. Shasta finally spoke and after an enigmatic introduction the voice behind him said, “Tell me your sorrows.” So Shasta recounted to this unknown companion his life story and complained about the challenges of his recent voyage and the lions that had threatened them. The voice replied, “I do not call you unfortunate,” to which Shasta questioned, “Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” The voice answered, “There was only one lion.” When Shasta tried to argue it said, “I was the lion.” It continued, “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat you comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.” By morning the lion had disappeared and he found that he had reached Narnia. When he returned in the light with others the way that he had come the previous night, Shasta realized why the lion had been following him that whole dark journey: “The hillside path which they were following became narrower all the time and the drop on their right hand became steeper. At last they were going in single file along the edge of the precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it. ‘But of course,’ he thought. ‘I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time.’” He had been walking in the dark next to a cliff without knowing it, but the Lion had following him to keep him from falling. As you know, the lion in the story was Aslan who of course represented the Savior. Just as it was for lion and Shasta, the Savior is also guiding your life in ways that you don’t even realize. Some day as you look back on your life you will see that He was there helping you, directing you, protecting you, and guiding you in the right way. This is the promise that He gave His disciples in our day: “But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me; But the day soon cometh that ye shall see me, and know that I am” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:7). I want you to know that the Savior is perfectly aware of you and your life, and if you do not resist He will “lead you along” until you are brought back to your Father in Heaven (Doctrine and Covenants 78:18).

                But you don’t have to wait until the end of your life to realize that the Savior is guiding you. As you pray each night, think back on your day and look for ways that the Lord blessed and helped and strengthen you. As you do so you will see that you receive divine aid far more than you realize. President Eyring recounted how he did this: “I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: ‘Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?’ As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.” I know that the Lord loves you deeply and that He is blessing your life each day. Seek to see His hand in our life as you prayerfully ponder your experiences, and your faith in Him will grow as you realize that He is indeed in your midst. 

Love,

Dad