The Lion Who Wasn't Safe

In C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there is a moment that has stopped readers in their tracks for over seventy years. The Pevensie children have just arrived in Narnia and are learning about the great lion Aslan. Susan asks Mr. Beaver a perfectly reasonable question: "Is he quite safe?"

Mr. Beaver's answer lands like a thunderclap: "Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

That single exchange captures something we struggle with every day in our walk with God. We want a safe faith — predictable, comfortable, wrapped in guarantees. We want to know exactly where the road leads before we take the first step. But the God of Abraham, the God who called Moses to face Pharaoh and asked Peter to step out of the boat, has never promised safe. He has promised good.

Trust is not the absence of danger. Trust is the confidence that the One leading you through the danger is faithful. The Almighty does not remove every storm, but He walks with us through every one.

Lewis understood that real trust begins precisely where our comfort ends. It is easy to follow a tame God. It takes faith to follow a good one. And that is exactly the kind of faith El Shaddai honors — the kind that says, "I do not know what is ahead, but I know Who walks beside me."