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In our reading from Ephesians, we hear of God’s work through Jesus Christ of bringing in those who did not know the Lord before.
To understand this work of Christ Jesus, I find C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy very helpful. This book is set in the land of Narnia when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the main characters of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, served as kings and queens, and it tells the tale of Shasta, a young boy in Calormen, one of the lands south of Narnia.
Shasta grew up in a small fishing village where he knew nothing of the lands outside his home. He certainly knew nothing of Narnia or Aslan the Lion and stand-in for God and Jesus in the Narnia stories. Then one day, Shasta learns that the man he thought was his father merely found him as a baby while this man, his “father”, tries to sell him to a rich stranger. Fortunately, this stranger’s horse is secretly a talking, intelligent horse from Narnia named Bree, and they plan their escape together to Narnia.
Along the way, after being chased into a river by lions, Shasta and Bree meet up with two others, another talking horse from Narnia and a girl trying to escape her impending marriage. Along their way, they get separated, uncover a plot to conquer Narnia and the lands surrounding it, and decide to do something about it. After being chased by another lion, Shasta is the only one left with strength to warn the neighboring kingdom of the attack. He succeeds in alerting them, but falls behind and is left alone.
As he continues along, miserable but safe, he notices another traveler is with him on the road who he cannot see. After assurances that this traveler is safe, Shasta tells him of his journey thus far and his sorrows.
The traveler tells him, after hearing his story, “I do not call you unfortunate.”
Shasta, confused, replies “Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?”
“There was only one lion…. but he was swift of foot.”
Bewildered, Shasta asks, “How do you know?”
The traveler then replies, “I was the lion…. I was the lion who forced you to join [the others]. 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 the new strength of fear for the last mile so 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.”
This lion, of course, is Aslan. Even while Shasta was far off and before he crossed the river to make it to the lands of the north, to make it to Narnia, Aslan was with him. Even before he knew who Aslan was, Aslan was there. Now that Shasta has made his long journey, he comes to know Aslan, and knows that Aslan is near, even if he was not aware before.
We come closer to God not because God was not there before, but so that we might know God and feel God’s presence in our lives. Our hope is that we will come to feel that presence so deeply that even though we find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil because we know God is there, as we hear in Psalm 23. Baptism is the means that we come closer to God and even, as we hear in Ephesians, become part of His household. It marks the end of our long journey back to God as it marks the beginning of our lives lived for God and God alone.
Our hope today with our soon to be baptized is that she will never have a time in her life where she does not know God. Our hope is that, unlike Shasta, she will recognize all the times where God has been there as a quiet protecting force or even been there to spurn her on to do the work God would have her do. Our hope is that she will feel God with her always.
As fellow members of the household of God, it is our mission to help this young child on that journey. It is our task to ensure she always knows God. It is our goal that she has a lifelong relationship with our Lord starting now.
Like Aslan with Shasta, God is always present in our lives, whether we recognize it or not. Our hope, though, is that we are aware of God’s presence, that we keep on making God known to those who are far off through the gift of the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we continue to grow the household of God through the grace of Baptism.