Trust God With What You Don't Understand: Lessons from a Narnian Adventure

I just finished reading The Horse and His Boy from the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. The last time I read this book was long ago enough to have forgotten important details, in other words, it was like reading it for the first time.

The Horse and His Boy is not about the four Pevensie children, although you get a glimpse at three of them. This is an adventure two kids take with their talking horses. Their adventure begins when they escape from Calormen in the South, a culture that exists on the backs of slaves and where “there is only one traffic regulation, which is that everyone who is less important has to get out of the way for everyone who is more important.” Their goal is to get to Narnia in the North where men and creatures live in freedom under the beneficence of the Son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, the lion Aslan. What lies between the two countries is a vast desert, scorching and desolate. More than an adventure, Shasta and Aravis set out on a dangerous journey.

Along the way, Aravis, the girl, is harmed by the Lion. The narrator does not share why Aravis needs to be injured until much later in the book. So, when I read this chapter, I was left confused. Why did Aslan hurt Aravis?

I know, as you probably do too, that we don’t always get an explanation for why we suffer. Job didn’t get one. You might not either. Until I see Jesus face-to-face, I will not fully understand why my lungs bleed and why I needed to sustain a spinal cord injury. Aravis, God bless her, got an explanation, but not until Chapter 14.

Life will involve things or events that confuse us, things we can’t understand. When that happens, we tend to draw inaccurate conclusions, at least I do. I start thinking God doesn’t care about me and that my suffering serves no purpose.

In our humanity, there are limits to how much we can understand of our infinite God and his ways. This is a good thing! When I run into those limits, I know I am being challenged to be content with what God has revealed to me and to trust him with what has not been revealed.

I set my book down and muddled through thoughts about Jesus, since Aslan represents Jesus. (Oops, spoiler alert!) Per the usual when I’m confused, I decided to trust what the scriptures have taught me to be true: God is good. And, as Mr. Beaver put it: “Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” I suspended my disbelief, trusted in the goodness of Aslan, and kept reading.

Also, I considered Aravis. She started her adventure as a confident, brave, smart, and self-reliant young lady. (Remind me of anyone? I’ll leave that one alone.) She needed to learn that her safety, skills, and good fortune, her very life, were gifts from Aslan. Her injury humbled her, for her good. Suffering helped Aravis become truly noble. (I’m not spoiling this one for you.)

Sure, there are many aspects to suffering and why God allows it that are not explained to Aravis in The Horse and His Boy. I won’t try to explain them either, it would cheapen the tears that have spilt through your suffering. What I can understand about suffering is what I have learned through suffering. You won’t hear me try to explain why babies die, why hurricanes ravage, or why some people live in chronic pain their entire lives. I can’t. And what I can’t understand about suffering, I trust God to reveal to me at some point even if that point is an X on heavenly ground where I will see Jesus face-to-face.

Lewis takes his readers on a fun adventure in The Horse and His Boy and if you have eyes to see it, there are lessons to be found about humility, dignity, and God’s nearness. I found this little gem: God uses suffering as a tool to teach us to depend on Him for everything. For my part, I want to partner with God in my suffering as a humbled woman, ready to learn and grow and follow Him. I don’t want to waste my suffering. Thankfully, I don’t need to understand it order to learn from it.

Where have you met your limits of understanding? What are you trusting God with that you don’t understand? Share in the comments below.

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