And now all Narnia shall be renewed. But come. We have no time to lose. (Aslan, from C. S. Lewis' Prince Caspian)
This is one of my favorite scenes in The Chronicles of Narnia. Lucy meets Aslan, who seems to have been absent for so long, with a sweet reunion. In Narnia the trees have fallen asleep, evil men rule, and many Narnians live in fear for their way of life. Many have begun to lose hope that Aslan is real, or that he cares. Lucy expresses her confusion: "I thought you'd come roaring in and frighten all the enemies away---like last time." (Chapter 10)
Aslan's plan is not to come roaring in like last time. But it is that all Narnia will be renewed. This makes me think of what I've been learning about in my Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class. We are working through the history of missions now, and seeing the way God has worked through all history to renew the earth. God’s kingdom is where his subjects are—where believers are. So as more people hear the good news and live their lives for the King, the Kingdom grows.
Sometimes God’s strategies to bring the kingdom are what I would have done, like the story of St. Patrick we celebrated earlier this month who dedicated his life to sharing the good news with the Irish. Sometimes His strategies are not at all what I would have done. God used young girls taken by the Vikings away from their homes to spread the gospel among their captors. In Europe, He used horrible plagues to demonstrate the radical love and confidence in the face of death of Christians, which brought many to Christ. In places of great persecution like China and Iran the church is growing faster than anywhere else. What a great God we serve! Praise be to Him for His great plan to bring all peoples to Himself.
The speaker in my Perspectives class a few weeks ago gave me a fresh look at one of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of heaven:
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Matthew 13:33)
The kingdom of heaven is small, like a few grains of yeast. But God mixes this small but powerful agent through 60 pounds of flour! (If you’ve never baked bread, that is enough for at least 50 loaves.) And he does that by kneading, forcefully moving that dough around until every part is touched by the kingdom of heaven.
What a cool image! Even through things that might cause many people pain, God plans each movement to put people in touch with His people so that His kingdom grows. I am so excited about what God is up to in His world! I feel like Aslan; “we have no time to lose!”