The Horse and His Boy, the fifth book in C.S. Lewis’ children's series called The Chronicles of Narnia, tells the story of a boy named Shasta.
He doesn’t know it, but he is the twin son of a Narnian prince. An evil counselor separated him from his brother at birth, casting him adrift in a boat. Miraculously, an impoverished fisherman rescued him and raised him.
Shasta ultimately has to run for his life, experiencing one close call after another. Strangely, he keeps encountering cats – both big ones and small ones.
He mentions that when lost and alone, he finds himself in the presence of Aslan – an enormous lion who represents the Christ figure in the Chronicles. Why have there been so many felines?
Aslan sets him straight:
“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis [his invaluable traveling partner]. 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 that 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.‘”
“Who are you?” Shasta asks. The lion’s response is extraordinary.
“’Myself,’ said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again ‘Myself,’ loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.”
Fans of Lewis’ writings have little doubt what’s happening here. Aslan reveals himself as the tri-personal God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christian thinkers over the centuries have declared that God exists as a kind of society.
At any given moment, God the Father (represented by Aslan’s deep voice) is before us. God the Son (the clear and gay voice) is beside us. God the Spirit (Aslan’s soft whisper) is within us. Before us, beside us, within us. We pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit – and in every regard find ourselves in the presence of God.
But isn’t the whole notion of Trinity a blatant contradiction? How can God be both three and one?
Theologians have been careful to point out that God is singular in one category (essence – there is only one God) but plural in another category (personhood – God is tri-personal by nature). Such a description is neither a contradiction nor a violation of the principles of logic.
Nevertheless, it is certainly a paradox (something that at first glance seems to be contradictory) and a mystery (a profound truth that we can’t comprehend at present, because we don’t have nearly enough information).
Father, Son, and Spirit are all featured in what is almost certainly the oldest Christmas carol still being actively sung in the 21st century.
Of the Father’s Love Begotten is like a time machine. It transports us back to the time between the Classical period of antiquity and the early Middle Ages – almost 17 centuries ago, a mere 300 years after the time of Jesus.
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (A.D. 348-413), one of Christianity’s earliest poets, penned the original words in Latin. They were ultimately set to the tune Divinum Mysterium, which hearkens from the 13th century.
Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He
Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.
O, that birth forever blessed, when the Virgin full of grace
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer, first revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
Christ to Thee with God the Father, and O Holy Ghost to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be
Honor, glory, and dominion, and eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.
Check out Michael Lining’s rendition of this ancient song. By recording his own unaccompanied voice four times, he captures the haunting beauty of medieval chant.
It’s impossible to plumb the depths of what it means that God the Son became a real human being at a real place at a real time in a real family – fully in concert with both Father and Spirit.
The most celebrated biblical description of this is found in John 1:14:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The English words “made his dwelling” are a translation of the single Greek word eskenosen, which literally means “pitched-tent.” In the person of Jesus, God came into our encampment. He pitched his tent right next to ours. He sat around the same campfire, breathed the same air, and shared the same daily chatter about the weather, the flocks, and which family down the way just welcomed a new baby.
In other words, he became one of us.
And how long will Jesus hold on to this identity – this transformation into a living, breathing human being?
Evermore and evermore.
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