The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 119f - Guided by the Lion: Identity, Courage, and Providence in The Horse and His Boy

• Paul

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A runaway boy, a noble girl, and two talking horses cross deserts and courts while a cat comforts and a lion pursues—yet nothing is as it seems. We dive into The Horse and His Boy to uncover how C. S. Lewis weaves providence through apparent accidents, turning fear into formation and coincidence into care. When Shasta finally meets Aslan and hears “I was the lion… I was the cat…,” memory itself is baptised; the scattered pieces of his journey lock into place and reveal a patient, purposeful love at work behind the scenes.

From there, we open the door to identity: Shasta’s unveiling as Kor, son of King Lune, mirrors the gospel logic of adoption—identity received, not achieved. That shift challenges modern self-making and offers a sturdier centre: chosen, royal, beloved. We talk courage without bravado, tracing how pressure forms character and calling, and why true vocation bends outward toward service rather than inward toward status. Along the way, we tackle the book’s controversies with care, noting its cultural portrayals and the moral contrast between the servant King and gods who demand service without mercy, while highlighting characters who choose Aslan from beyond Narnia’s borders.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your life is guided or just chaotic, this conversation offers a way to read your past with new eyes. Walk with us through deserts and palaces, fear and comfort, pride and humility, and consider how providence, adoption, and courage might be shaping your own story. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us where you’ve seen the Lion’s hidden guidance in your life.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the next episode of the Christ-centered cosmic civilization, and we're still in our Narnia series, and we're now up to uh The Horse and His Boy, and this is a novel that divides opinion most starkly of any of the Narnia series. People love it or kinda hate it, um uh and and not a lot in between. People either see it as this very deep exploration of divine providence, or there's another view that it's uh boring, um weird, uh even kind of it's been criticized recently for being a kind of racist book because it uh sees these kind of mid this kind of Middle Eastern nation as as evil. Well, what is it, the horse and his boy? What's the story? Because this is not an uh it's not a Narnia story that begins in Narnia. This one begins in Caloman, far to the south, where a boy named Shasta dreams of freedom. And the horse and his boy, it's a tale of uh journeys and disguises and revelations, it's about ordinary people caught up in deeper purposes that don't become clear at first. The three big themes that we'll try to explore is about providence guiding ordinary lives, and then secondly, um that's the first thing, and the second thing is to do with identity and being adopted into the divine family, uh, or at least being having a royal status in a secret way, and then thirdly, um courage uh and the way people are capable of more than they realize. But uh one person said, the horse and his boy, it's a story about how God weaves our lives together even when we cannot see his hand. Well, what's the what's the basic story? Let's set the stage. It's Shasta is a poor fisherman's son, or so he believes, and then he overhears that he is to be sold into slavery, and then he runs away, and he meets Brie, who is a talking horse from Narnia. So uh and Brie has been sort of kidnapped away and now wishes to return to Narnia, and uh they join up together to set out on this journey of escape. And then along the way, they meet Aravis, who is a noble Calamine girl fleeing from an arranged marriage, and she also has a talking horse, Huyn. So the um both of two talking horses to uh and the male and female uh parties in that way. Anyway, the so they join together and their journey takes them through cities and deserts and palaces and eventually into Narnia itself. But behind and alongside all their adventures is a cat, a lion, sometimes frightening, sometimes in disguise, but always guiding them, nudging them, pushing them in the right direction that takes them to the conclusion. So at one level it kinda seems to be just a story of humans doing the best they can facing all kinds of difficulties and stumbling their way through to a conclusion. But as we begin to understand the way the story is woven, we see it's a story of Providence that Aslan knows about them and is influencing them. Well, let's look at that then, this first theme, Providence guiding ordinary lives. Because one of the most powerful moments in The Horse and His Boy comes near the end when Shasta meets Aslan face to face. Now, throughout the journey, Shasta has been pursued by lions, driven by fear, nearly overwhelmed by danger, and all sorts of incidents have happened around him, uh sometimes comforting, sometimes terrifying, and when he meets Aslan face to face, Aslan reveals the truth, and Aslan says, 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 away 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 Loon in time. So every step of the way Aslan was guiding, and he didn't reveal his true identity, he was present in all kinds of disguises, and sometimes those disguises that seem not at all a friendly hand, but uh like a terrible enemy, and they were uh driven by fear of him, of this lion, and then that there's that occasion where it's like a little cat who's comforting and so on. But um, what seemed like accidents and coincidences or even terrors were in fact providence, and this is C.S. Lewis's exploration of divine sovereignty that the Lord Jesus Christ is the divine emperor over the heavens and the earth, and he uh all authority in heaven and earth belongs to him, and he has, of course, hundreds of millions of angels that serve him in all kinds of ways, and he promises to his people that he will never leave us nor forsake us, and there's a that we don't see him, but we he his eye is upon us, his hand is guiding us, our lives are not random, our struggles are not wasted. God is the living God is at work weaving our stories into his greater plan, and though individual moments in it are just terror or or even injury, there's a that um the like one of the incidents that happens is um the girl um Aravus gets badly injured by the lion. And then the that is also explained in a kind of providential way, but it's um we don't it's not as like the presence of God working in in our lives is uh sometimes people imagine it's only in good things, but C.S. Lewis is saying it's in great difficulties and fear, and the way he guides us can be painful. Um and just this last week or so um my daughter shared with me uh a meditation on how uh it in Malachi the Lord Jesus is described as a as a a refiner who refines like precious metals, and uh she'd been seeing how that was done, and how the refiner must sit with this silver and keep it in the hottest part of the fire and wait with that, can't just uh leave it, has to wait with it and bring it out of the fire, and can't leave it in too long and all of this, and this this deep um sort of intimate link between the refiner and the silver, uh, and the use of the fire to bring about this refining, and that kind of idea that he is at work in hidden ways, in disguises, and and particularly in this case, where the person like Shasta doesn't isn't really a follower of Aslan to begin with, and kind of gets drawn towards him. So for Shasta, the revelation or this revelation where he can then see what has been happening in his life, the revelation is overwhelming, he realizes he's never been alone, and then of course, we're to see reflect on that for ourselves, and for C.S. Lewis, uh it's a hard thing, and in his books, like A Grief Observed and so on, and and then in the autobiography, The Surprise by Joy, it he writes with this deep awareness of the way that he has been drawn and towards Christ, long before he knew of him, long before he was aware of him, he himself knew that this drawing towards Christ, but also in affliction and the death of his wife, and how he found that very, very difficult to understand and deal with. But even in that, uh, but it when he's trying to think through how Christ could be working in that, it's quite raw when we hear his own meditation on that. So his view of this subject is not trivial or lightly held. And um, I don't know who said that providence is best seen in hindsight, or can only be seen in hindsight, that at the time it may feel like we're abandoned, and yet when we look back we can see uh how powerfully Christ was at work. But um also let's move on to the next theme about identity and adoption, because Shasta believes he's a nobody. He thinks he's a poor fisherman's son and he's unwanted, forgotten, badly treated. But as the whole story progresses and comes to an amazing conclusion, the truth is revealed that he is not Shasta the Orphan, he is Kor, the long-lost son of King Loon of Archonland. And Archonland is like an allied kingdom to Narnia. He's a prince, uh, an heir, a son. And this he's got a royal identity, and that is powerful also because um were to identify with that. C.S. Lewis wants us to realise that in our lives we in this world, because it that's the sort of contrast always with the land of night. Narnia has like a heavenly character to it, and it's a heavenly kingdom which can be forgotten and then rediscovered even in the physical land of Narnia. The physical land of Narnia can cease to be Narnia kind of thing, and as we see in the Prince Caspian story and so on. Um, but like other lands uh follow do not follow when they do not follow Aslan, they uh the the kind of cut off from this heavenly reality. Um, and so the idea is that there is a kind of reality that is not at all that can be utterly hidden and not at all apparent. In this way, he seems to be this nobody, but actually is part of the royal family, and we're to see that connection, that life on in this present darkness, in this world as it is now. We are all, if we follow Jesus, we're all adopted into the royal household, chosen people, highly regarded with a with an inheritance that is astronomically massive. Uh, we all things are ours in Christ, and all of that. So the the the story of Shasta is a kind of gospel story. We are not who the world says we are, we're not defined by our past, our circumstances, um, the way people treat us, how they call us, the names they call us, the labels they attach to us. There's a kind of hidden reality to those who belong to Aslan, to Christ. And there's that being adopted into um, I mean, Chester, I guess, is rightfully by birth the king's son, the prince, the heir. But in our in the in the real-world analogy, we are all adopted into the royal family and have this identity: righteous, holy, chosen, royal priests. And uh, it's vital that we discover this true identity. We are sons and daughters of the king, and having discovered it, we must know that identity because it totally changes the way we live if we know our real identity, because in in our present age, there's an enormous problem with identity, and people feel that the labels given to them do not conform to who they feel they are, and in lots and lots of ways, and there's such complexity in that. And uh, the solution is not to give ourselves an identity or to have other people give us an identity, but rather Christ alone gets us, knows who we really are. So C.S. Lewis captures this uh wonder of a secret identity, and of course, Shasta doesn't earn his identity, it's not that he works hard and qualifies to be the royal son, he discovers it. It's uh it's been given to him by birth, and that's our story. We're not slaves, we're not nobody's anyone who belongs to Christ is adopted into the divine royal household with a great inheritance children of God. So identity, it's uh who said I think someone said identity in Christ, it's not achieved, it's received. And that is profound, uh, particularly for so many of us feel that the identities or even the citizenships offered to us uh alienate us rather than uh comfort us or ground us. Let's move on to the next heading, which is this idea of courage and call calling. Throughout the story, Shasta is called to face difficult challenges uh to and and to be courageous. There's a whole thing about fear and to be driven by fear and have courage and so on, and he faces uh deserts, armies, and uh and and being chased by this lion that he doesn't know who he is, but again and again he feels he he's inadequate. Um but of course courage isn't that you're not afraid, it's that you do what you should even though you're afraid. And uh he there's a great bit where he stands up to the lion eventually. And when Shasta warns King Loon of the Calamine invasion, he has kind of arrived at this calling. He's no longer just a runaway boy, he's a leader, a prince, a messenger, he's become he's like been through this discipleship process facing the challenges, and all the way, you know, if if we look at it from Aslan's point of view, um he's being shaped by all these trials and temptations and difficulties, he is being forged to be more useful, to for him to be to exercise the gifts that have been given to him, to for him to uh develop, to become sanctified, we might use that language, and there's this idea then that when we are being faced with the deserts, the fears, the challenges to grow in those situations, there are opportunities for growth, and that the reason that is possible is because we may feel the absence of God, but there's that wonderful verse, isn't there? He is near to the brokenhearted, near to those who call on him, but near to the brokenhearted. So often when we're in that brokenhearted or God for feeling God forsaken, it can be that he is nearer to us then than he than ever, and that in those times we can grow and discover how to stand firm under pressure in the storm, all of that. So C.S. Lewis is in this story, The Horse and His Boy, teaching us that the living God takes ordinary people and shapes them and calls them to extraordinary purposes, and we go forward by trusting Aslan, Christ, stepping forward anyway. And it's good with Shasta because he's not courageous for his own sake. What draws the courage out of him is the needs of others, it's for others, and that that again is not an accidental feature of the story for C.S. Lewis. True calling our gifts are there for the benefit of others, not the benefit of ourselves. And when we try to exercise the gifts that he's given to us for our own benefit, they um they misfire, then they don't, they're not fruitful. So true calling is outward facing, it's about service, it's not about self. There was someone who said this about the horse and his boy that courage is saying yes to the lion, even when our knees are shaking. Okay, so there it is. Why does the horse and his boy matter? Some people love it. Uh, I was listening to a guy give a lecture on it, and he said it's his favourite Narnia n story because of this powerful presentation of the providence of God. In the Bible, the book of Esther has the well, the book of Esther as it is in the Masoretic text, because in those texts there is no reference to God, no reference to the Lord, and yet when you read the book of Esther, it's obvious that the Lord God is intensely involved in the life of Esther and the life of his ancient church and leads them through from what looks like certain destruction to wonderful international triumph. And so that some people have said the horse and his boy is a bit like the Book of Esther in that way, that there's this hidden presence of Christ in it that all becomes apparent as you follow on. But and so for those that get that and and embrace and enjoy and love the providence of God, they get that in the horse and his boy, but for others it's a frustrating book because it doesn't have the same kind of uh action uh fantasy story that some of the earlier ones have got, and the the characters are more kind of complicated in the horse and and his boy, and and also uh quite someone said to me, I just want stories about Narnia. I don't want stories about these other places, but it's interesting with these other places because there are people in these other countries who can learn to follow Aslan, but of course, um, because there's this evil um god who's like a vulture god, and those that follow that god are uh bear the character of that god and are cruel and uh inhumane to one another because of it, and and and that comes out in the idea of the arranged marriages and slavery and things like that, and of course, we know uh C. S. Lewis is depicting that um it is kind of Islam and the Ottoman Empire and everything. There's no point in us dancing around that. C. S. Lewis definitely is going in that direction with it, and that the it matters which god we follow. And to follow the Lord Jesus has one character with his gentleness and grace, and that he comes down not to be served but to serve, whereas there are other gods in this, even in our real world, not just the land of Narnia, in the real world, there are other gods that demand to be served and do not serve us. And C.S. Lewis is making a point about that, and of course, anyone in the Narnia stories, there are people from all these countries who do end up following Aslan, and that comes out in different ways, and we'll see that very powerfully in the final book, the last battle. So, why does the story matter? It reminds us that our lives are not accidents, we're guided by providence, our true identity is not found in the world's labels, but in Christ's adoption of us into the royal family. It's a story that helps us to understand courage that's exercised for others, and this idea of a destiny that is present in and through the hardships. Again, let me give a quotation. Someone says, uh the horse and his boy is a story for the ordinary, the overlooked, the fearful, and it whispers, you are seen, you are chosen, you are called. So there it is. Horse and his boy. Read it if you haven't read it, enjoy it as your own story, and think about providence in your own life as you read it, and also that kind of issue of identity. I found that I when I read it, the uh that the power of understanding our own identity, particularly when we're in situations that were that is completely contradicted by our circumstances. So Shasta's journey, Aravus's escape, Bree's Pride, yeah, we didn't explore Breeze Pride. He's a very sort of um pompous, proud horse, talking horse, and it's because really his identity also is in question, and he's worried, like while while he's a talking horse among dumb horses, he's a big shot, but he's slightly worried that when he goes to Narnia and it's all talking horses, then now he's an ordinary horse, he's just one of many talking horses. So he's but he's kind of feels threatened by this, and his identity is quite tied up with being superior to others around him, Brie, the um the talking horse. It's that's uh that's good in itself. So even the horses, because Huen, the other talking horse, has this humility, but all of the characters have these kind of discipleship journeys to go on. Well, there it is. And uh it's it's the creation and fold story, really. But until then, may you see Aslan's providence in your life, in your past, in your identity as his child, and may you walk with courage into your calling.