Well, picking up from yesterday's post, here is the next excerpt from C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair that I'd like to discuss. The scene is still the same...Aslan and Jill are talking at the stream, and Aslan has invited Jill to come and take a drink if she is thirsty."'Will you promise not to--do anything to me if I do come?' said Jill.
'I make no promise,' said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
'Do you eat girls?' she said.
'I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,' said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
'I daren't come and drink,' said Jill.
'Then you will die of thirst,' said the Lion.
'Oh dear!' said Jill, coming another step nearer. 'I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.'
'There is no other stream,' said the Lion.
It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion--no one who had seen his stern face could do that--and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now, she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all. She got up and stood there with her lips still wet from drinking" (The Silver Chair, pages 21-22).
Lewis paints such a beautiful picture of the thirsty human soul and the Lord Jesus' fulfillment of that thirst in this story. When Aslan asks Jill to come and quench her thirst in the stream, she is afraid. She doesn't know what will happen to her if she does drink from the stream, but she knows she won't remain unaffected or untouched. Aslan refuses to promise that nothing will happen to her. The fear of the unknown is almost too much for Jill. This is how it is with many unbelievers. They are empty and long for some type of fulfillment, but they are reluctant to go the Lord for satisfaction. They would rather go somewhere else for fulfillment, preferably somewhere safe and within their control. Salvation through Jesus is free, but following Him requires surrendering your entire life! You can't encounter Jesus and expect your life to stay the same.
At one point, Jill decides that she will not drink from the stream, and Aslan replies, "then you will die of thirst" (21). The consequence for not coming to Jesus and responding to His invitation for salvation is death (Romans 6:23).
When Jill tells Aslan she will just go somewhere else for a drink, he responds by saying, "there is no other stream" (21). We can try to look elsewhere for satisfaction and fulfillment, but we won't find it! As the apostle Peter said when Jesus asked the disciples if they were leaving Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).
When Jill finally does drink from the stream, her thirst is immediately quenched. The water is unlike anything she has ever had to drink, and she is compelled to stay there rather than running away (as she had originally planned to do). She realizes that leaving Aslan would be dangerous. Once you have tasted what it is like to be filled with Jesus and have experienced the satisfaction only He can bring, you won't want to go anywhere else! What a beautiful picture of Jesus' Living Water, which will quench the thirsty and dying soul and fill it up to the brim until that soul can truly say, "My cup overflows" (Psalm 23:5).
