Fairest of All

Inspiration taken from C.S. Lewis's Magician's Nephew. 

The Chronicles of Narnia are a beloved set of books by the great author C.S. Lewis, but perhaps more important than Lewis’s literary work, is his work as a devoted and gifted follower of Jesus Christ. The first book chronologically in his Narnia series is the Magician’s Nephew, a personal favorite of mine.

It tells the origins story of the land and world of Narnia, and its creation story closely mirrors the Bible’s own account of how God created our world from nothing, ex nihilo in the Latin, and spoke it into existence, creating everything for His good pleasure.

However, that is not the parallel I will be taking from this book for now, that may yet come later. For now I wish to take a single passage, explain its context, and then back it up with Scripture. Let us begin my friends!

In the Magician’s Nephew, the main character, Digory Kirke’s mother is dying. And after many adventures he is given the chance by Aslan (the creator of Narnia) to take some of the fruit of the Tree of Life to his ailing mother, provided he not try to take it by treachery or force.

And it is this line that we will look at, from chapter 15, page 215-216:

“Digory took the Apple of Life out of his pocket. And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our world instead of in her own, so the fruit of that mountain garden looked different too. There were of course all sorts of coloured things in the bedroom; the coloured counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper, the sunlight from the window, and Mother's pretty, pale blue dressing jacket. But the moment Digory took the Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any colour at all. Every one of them, even the sunlight, looked faded and dingy. The brightness of the Apple threw strange lights on the ceiling. Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn't look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven. “

This my friends is a truth worth noting. For I do not believe we would give this a passing glance normally. I will pose this question: Do we who are Christians see Jesus Christ like that? Do we see our God like that?

I will give you this Scripture and explain how it all ties together: Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

What I want you to see, dear friend, is that for Jesus to fixate our gaze, we have to see Him as though there is nothing else worth looking at. Everything should fade out and grow dim when exposed to the light of our Savior. All color should fade but that which Jesus exudes, and all light should dim but that which comes from Christ’s shining face.

Hebrews 1:3-- “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus is the most beautiful thing in the universe, and if we are to follow Him faithfully, we must be willing and ready to allow everything else to fade away in order to see Him as the primary source of beauty, and color, and life to our souls, because the truth is, He is all of that and more.

Let Christ become to us as the Apple was to Digory: “Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn't look at anything else.”

Oh my friends, were that we would see Jesus Christ in this way every day. Nothing else is worth looking at, nothing else is worth gazing at but the beauty, and Majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray for this my dear friends, as I pray it for my own sinful heart, that God would cause my eyes to be opened to see Christ’s divine, and indescribable beauty and glory.

Let us sing with the Hymnist:

“Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,

Robed in the blooming garb of spring;

Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,

Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,

And all the twinkling starry host;

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer

Than all the angels heaven can boast.”

And pray with the Psalmist:

Psalms 27:4--“One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”

Praying for eyes to see His Beauty,

--The Scribe