The Horse and His Boy
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When we speak of Divine Providence we mean the way God guides all things for good for those who cooperate with him.
There is a powerful scene on Providence from the book The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis
The main character, a boy named Shasta, thinks he has been abandoned in the world to protect and provide for himself. Finding himself all alone on a mountain after a very difficult experience he begins to complain to himself.
“I do think,” said Shasta, “that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me…”
What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or some thing was walking beside him…He bit his lip in terror…The Thing went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it…At last he could bear it no longer. Scarcely above a whisper Shasta said, “Who are you?”
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing… “Tell me your sorrows.”
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…”
“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 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.”
God was guiding everything in the life of Shasta for good. He just never realized it, so Shasta lived in unbelief, ingratitude, and fear.
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The conversation between Shasta and Aslan led me to reflect on my own life.
My birth mother became pregnant outside of marriage. She had the courage to have me and give me up for adoption. There was another couple who were next in line for adoption, but they wanted a girl and passed on me. Providence was working it all out because I ended up with the greatest adoptive parents in the universe (I am partial of course). So on the first best day of my life, June 12, 1968 I received my earthly family and the good sisters wouldn’t let them take me home until they took me down the street and I was baptized, receiving my heavenly family.
September 19, 1990 was the 2nd best day of my life. There was an unusually violent thunderstorm on Lake Okoboji in Iowa that day that caused a couple to have their wedding reception in a bar and grill on the lake rather than the river-boat they had planned. I crashed that reception that night and met my wife Sandy. Yes I am a wedding crasher but God’s providence was working things out.
Soon after I was offered a job in Michigan and had to choose between Grand Rapids and Detroit. Detroit intimidated me but Sandy was from Detroit and her brother David talked me into moving to Brighton MI. There I met seminarian Bill Ashbaugh and through a relationship with him I had a deep mystical encounter with the Mother of God and everything changed. This seminarian told me to go to Steubenville to study theology. There James Sanchez and Dr. Mark Miravalle introduced me to St. Maximillian Kolbe which led to my doctorate on Mary. It was also at Steubenville that I met Dr. Troy Hinkle with whom I began the School of Faith at the university of Kansas which paved the way for this world-wide Rosary Movement. I could name a 1000 more ways that God in his Providence has guided all things in my life for good.
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Too often we are like Shasta, we think we are the most unfortunate boy who ever lived.
At the end of our life, we shall stand before the Great Lion, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, and he will show us how He guided all things for our greatest benefit. And like Shasta, we will stand gaping with an open mouth in astonishment.
When I look back, I see how God has guided all things for my good.
Even when I was living a life of mortal sin and made many blunders, He still took care of me and saved me over and over and over – all the while writing straight with my crooked lines.
If you were to ask me why I believe in God I would say I believe because I have experienced his providential care.
But we do not need to wait until the end to see. We can see it now – for if you stop and look back - you too will see and believe.
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We live in ingratitude
Today, take some time to look back over your life to become aware of how God has always provided for you and thank him for it – be grateful.
Then make the choice to live always in the present moment with gratitude.
But go a step further, thank God ahead of time for taking care of you in the future because God never changes. He took care of you in the past, He is taking care of you today and he will always take care of you.
Therefore, thank God ahead of time.
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God works all things for good for those who love him, that is for those who cooperate with Him.
God is always working on our behalf, but at some point we must make the choice to love Him and work with him. He can’t force us into heaven against our will. And though God works all things for good, some people can ruin that process in themselves by sin and impenitence.
Therefore, we not only look back with faith and gratitude…Let us also make the firm resolution to go forward with a real commitment to desire and seek and strive after union with God and to do what is right and good so that His Providence will have the greatest and most glorious effect in our lives and those entrusted to our care!