It is one of the many moments where CS Lewis presents a simple turn of a phrase, in the midst of a story, and it stops you dead in your tracks. “Safe, safe? Who said anything about safe? He’s not a tame lion” from Mr. Beaver is one of them. Another is, after they’d been apart for some time, how Aslan corrects Lucy’s mistake:
“Aslan” said Lucy “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
It is vital for us to never lose sight of how far we have to go in becoming what we will be. Our glorification is like arriving at a distant galaxy. Our sanctification along the way is like riding the elevator to get on the spaceship. Pride has no place in us as even our best works are tinged with what we once were.
On the other hand, it is likewise vital for us to never lose sight that we are in fact becoming more like what we will be. We mustn’t diminish the good work of the Holy Spirit in us. It’s easy to miss, in large part because of the opposite side of Aslan’s coin. That is, every year we grow better we will find ourselves smaller. Growing in grace means, in part, increasing our understanding of the scope of our sin. The better we get the more clearly we learn how awful we are.
Our Redeemer, however, has not left us orphans. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of power, supernatural power. We are in fact growing into what we will be. Which is reason to celebrate and to give thanks. It is not boastful to affirm that we see better now than we once did the glory of Jesus. It is not arrogant to praise Him for setting us free from this besetting sin or that. And it is not humble to grumble that our progress is going too slowly.
Are we almost there? Not on, or in, your life. Jesus remains busy washing His bride with the water of the Word. Each of us is being scrubbed and molded and shaped. Through the preaching of the Word. Through our prayers and the prayers of others for us. Through the encouragement of the saints. Through the purging fires of hardship. Even through our failures that He stewards so well. The ashes that He trades for beauty are often the remains of what we burned in our folly.
He has promised us that the good work He has begun in us He will complete. Part of the process is not just believing He will do it, but believing He is doing it. Aslan is not getting any bigger. He is, however, opening our eyes more fully that we might behold His glory. And we know that as we see Him as He is, we become like Him.