YP4L

I heard a sermon recently and it reminded me of Bobzy’s blog about how we can feel God is hiding from us.
There were 2 bits that really struck me, one was about how God might be into using polyjuice potion, maybe God is all around us disguised in the people we meet but we don't always realise. The other was an extract from C.S Lewis’s Horse and His boy. It’s about a boy (Shasta) and a girl (Aravis) who are on a long journey escaping from captivity into the free world of Narnia. Shasta is so exhausted, stressed and tired from their journey that he lies down and weeps. But then Shasta senses someone or something with him:

‘Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said,”that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”

Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and--”

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued.

“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who 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 new strength of fear so that the last mile so that you should reach your destination 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.”

So I was thinking, maybe when we’re playing hide and seek, it’s ok to ask ‘hot or cold’? because God wants us to find Him and sometimes, maybe because of ‘polyjuice potion’ we can walk right past Him in His hiding places but He still sees us and hears our footsteps and maybe if we listen out we can hear him shout ‘hot!’ or ‘cold!’ Just a thought.....