I just finished reading The Magician's Nephew to my son. I've read the book a dozen times or so, but something about reading it aloud changed the final two chapters for me. I choked up as I read about Digory bringing the Apple of Life to his dying mother, about her drug-free sleep, and how everything really was going to be okay. It became clearer than ever before that C.S. Lewis was rewriting his own childhood.
If you have read much about Lewis's childhood, you know that one of the most defining moments of his life was the death of his mother when he was but 10 years old. In Surprised by Joy he describes an idyllic childhood until this event occurs. He also talks about the prayers he prayed for her healing, prayers that were not answered.
But here, in creation-tale of Narnia, he changes his own story. Digory's prayers are answered.
How did Lewis feel about unanswered prayers. I just picked up Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, which I'm sure I'll find dozens of wonderful quotes about the topic. Perhaps I should wait to write this post until I do. And yet I think the Lewis's best answer is found in The Magician's Nephew. When Digory plucks up the courage to ask Aslan for something for his mother, he can't bring himself to look up. When he finally does, he is surprised to find that the Lion's eyes are filled with tears.
"My son, my son," said Aslan. "I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another.”
Like Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, knowing full-well that Lazarus would be raised in a matter of moments, Aslan weeps. Why? Aslan knows Digory's mother will be shortly healed. He weeps because grief is great. He weeps because he understands pain.
Why are prayers unanswered? Why is their pain? I have no idea. But I find we often ask the wrong questions. The question Scripture answered for us is that God knows our pain. That we are not alone in it.
That doesn't mean we won't still have questions. But it does answer the cry of our hearts.
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