Joyful Ruins

I have been rereading The Chronicles of Narnia and just finished The Horse and his Boy.

One of the characters’ story particularly connected to my heart this time around.

Bree is a horse from Narnia who grew up as a war horse in foreign lands.

Bree knows he is a free horse and he knows he is meant for more than a life of domestication. He escapes his owner in order to return to freedom in Narnia. But along the way, he clings to his past life, proud of all his knowledge, in a sense, proud of his enslavement. That is who he believes he is, through and through.

As the characters of the story near Narnia and freedom, Bree grows more stubborn, prideful, and cling increasingly to his slave identity.

He does not know how to be free, to act free, to live free, even though he has actually been free for as long as we have been reading the book (Some may say even as soon as he was born Narnian).

He is stuck in a slave mentality. He feels shame for his past as well, and can’t seem to let it go. These are so strong that he almost chooses to not go to Narnia.

In the end, Aslan (God) shows up and sets him right.

I relate to Bree. I am free, set free by Christ, but I constantly allow myself to remain enslaved by others’ opinions, my own fears, etc. I live in the past and cling to parts of my “identity” that God has freed me from.

Bree reminds me of how close I am to experiencing true freedom and how I am often the one holding myself back from it.

We all can learn from Bree, to throw off our saddles, our “masters”, to stop ruminating on our past, to open our eyes to new ways, and to run with freedom in our true identity and home found in Christ.