“In the darkness something was happening at last.

A voice had begun to sing… 

There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond

comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so

beautiful he could hardly bear it.”

from The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

Two weeks ago I was asked to spend some time “reflecting on my life’s journey”.  I was given some ideas of how to structure this, but the impression that I kept coming back to was the description of the creation of Narnia as told by Lewis in The Magician’s Nephew.  

Aslan sings and calls the animals from the ground, and breathing on them, he gives them voices and intelligence of their own. His tune calls the flowers from the ground and the chorus of the stars joins in his song.

The image of Aslan singing the world into being is one that has always captured my imagination and fed my love for colour and growing things. And as I read the narrative again I was able to make many correlations to my life. 

God has given me a voice. God has surrounded me (and you) with beauty. All of this is a gift given freely.

This week I’ve been meditating on a different passage.. 

“… for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the sheep

under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!” 

(Psalm 95:7; NLT)

I’ve been thinking about that voice, the voice that “…rose and rose, till all the air was shaking with it. And just as it swelled to the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun arose.” (TMN, Lewis)

This is the voice of the one that watches over us. This is the voice of the one who cares for us. 

The first verses of the Gospel of John say,

 “In the beginning the Word (Logos) already existed. He was with God,

and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created

everything there is.  Nothing exists that he did not make.

Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.

The light shines in through the darkness, and darkness can 

never extinguish it.” (NLT)

Nothing exists that he did not make.

In his book The Universal Christ, Richard Rohr states “Creation exists first of all for its own good sake; second to show forth God’s goodness, diversity, and beneficence; and then for human’s appropriate use.” (p. 50)

Rohr then states, “The proof that you are a Christian is that you can see Christ everywhere else” (p. 51)…   In “the least of these brothers and sisters (Matthew 25:40); in the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43); in the lilies of the field and the birds of the air (Matthew 6:25-30). 

Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! Do you hear the song of creation? Do you feel the love of God in the weight of a child in your lap? Do you hear the voice of God in the sound of the waves? the purr of a cat? or even the cry of a broken heart? 

The Image of Christ (Imago Christi) is found in every created thing – created to show forth God’s goodness and love for us. Do you see it?

We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!

I’ve reduced this to a breath prayer… 

Inhale: Under Your care

Exhale: I will listen

That’s what I would have said…

Lewis, C.S., The Magician’s Nephew, (New York, Collier Books, 1955).

Rohr, Richard, The Universal Christ, (New York, Convergent Books, 2019), p.50-52.