What Would Have Happened

If you have ever read C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, you may recognize the following excerpt from Prince Caspian. The story tells of the four siblings’ second visit to Narnia. Many years have passed, and as the High Kings and Queens, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were called back to Narnia from their world by Prince Caspian. The prince is the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia, but must regain his position by fighting his Uncle Miraz, who has usurped the throne. The battle is not going well for Caspian, and as a last resort he uses Susan’s horn from long ago, hoping it will bring help, and sends representatives out to greet anyone who might show up. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are met by Trumpkin, a dwarf, and at this point in the story are on their way to meet Caspian. Along the way, Lucy sees Aslan, who is the creator, ruler and savior of Narnia.

“What on Earth?” said Peter suddenly.
They had come, without seeing it, almost to the edge of a small precipice from which they looked down into a gorge with a river at the bottom. On the far side the cliffs rose much higher. None of the party except Edmund (and perhaps Trumpkin) was a rock climber.
“I’m sorry,” said Peter. “It’s my fault for coming this way. We’re lost. I’ve never seen this place in my life before.”
The Dwarf gave a low whistle between his teeth.
“Oh do let’s go back and go the other way,” said Susan. “I knew all along we’d get lost in these woods.”
“Susan!” said Lucy, reproachfully, “don’t nag at Peter like that. It’s so rotten, and he’s doing all he can.”
“And don’t you snap at Su like that either,” said Edmund. “I think she’s quite right.”
“Tubs and tortoiseshells!” exclaimed Trumpkin. “If we’ve got lost coming, what chance have we of finding our way back? And If we’re to go back to the Island and begin all over again (even supposing we could), we might at well give the whole thing up. Miraz will have finished with Caspian before we get there at that rate.”
“You think we ought to go on?” said Lucy.
“I’m not sure that High King is lost,” said Trumpkin. “What’s to hinder this river being the Rush?”
“Because the Rush is not in a gorge,” said Peter, keeping his temper with some difficulty.
“Your Majesty says is,” replied the Dwarf, “but oughtn’t you to say was? You knew this country hundreds—it may be a thousand—years ago. Mayn’t it have changed? A landslide might have pulled off half the side of that hill, leaving bare rock, and there are your precipices beyond the gorge. Then the Rush might go on deepening its course year after year till you get the little precipices on this side. Or there might have been an earthquake, or anything.”
“I never thought of that,” said Peter.
“And anyway,” continued Trumpkin, “even if this is not the Rush, it’s flowing roughly North and so it must fall into the Great River anyway. I think I passed something that might have been it, on my way down. So if we go down-stream, to our right, we’ll hit the Great River. Perhaps not so high as we’d hoped, but at least we’ll be no worse off than if you’d come my way.”
“Trumpkin, you’re a brick,” said Peter. “Come on, then. Down this side of the gorge.”
“Look! Look! Look!” cried Lucy.
“Where? What?” asked everyone.
“The Lion,” said Lucy. “Aslan himself. Didn’t you see?” Her face had changed completely and her eyes shone.
“Do you really mean—” began Peter.
“Where did you think you saw him?” asked Susan.
“Don’t talk like a grown-up,” said Lucy, stamping her foot. “I didn’t think I saw him. I saw him.”
“Where, Lu?” asked Peter.
“Right up there between those mountain ashes. No, this side of the gorge. And up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you want to go. And he wanted us to go where he was—up there.”
“How do you know that was what he wanted?” asked Edmund.
“He—I—I just know,” said Lucy, “by his face.”
The others all looked at each other in puzzled silence.
“Her Majesty may well have seen a lion,” put in Trumpkin. “There are lions in these woods, I’ve been told. But it needn’t have been a friendly and talking lion any more than the bear was a friendly and talking bear.”
“Oh, don’t be so stupid,” said Lucy. “Do you think I don’t know Aslan when I see him?”

Lucy gives in to her party’s wishes and follows them on their way, the opposite way that Aslan was directing. They have an exhausting day of travel and finally camp for the night.

Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name. She thought at first it was her father’s voice, but that did not seem quite right. Then she thought it was Peter’s voice, but that did not seem to fit either. She did not want to get up; not because she was still tired—on the contrary she was wonderfully rested and all the aches had gone from her bones—but because she felt so extremely happy and comfortable. She was looking straight up at the Narnian moon, which is larger than ours, and at the starry sky, for the place where they had bivouacked was comparatively open.
“Lucy,” came the call again, neither her father’s voice nor Peter’s. She sat up, trembling with excitement but not with fear. The moon was so bright that the whole forest landscape around her was almost as clear as day, though it looked wilder.
Behind her was the fir-wood; away to her right the jagged cliff-tops on the far side of the gorge; straight ahead, open grass to where a glade of trees began about a bow-shot away. Lucy looked very hard at the trees of that glade.
…
She soon got through [the trees] (half wondering whether she had been using her arms to push branches aside, or to take hands in a Great Chain with big dancers who stooped to reach her) for they were really a ring of trees round a central open place. She stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely light and shadows.
A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it. And then—oh joy! For He was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.
But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.
“Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan,” sobbed Lucy. “At last.”
The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face.
“Welcome child,” he said.
“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.”
For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak. But Aslan spoke.
“Lucy,” he said, “we must not lie here for long. You have work in hand, and much time has been lost to-day.” “Yes, wasn’t it a shame?” said Lucy. “I saw you all right. They wouldn’t believe me. They’re all so—”
From somewhere deep inside Aslan’s body there came the faintest suggestion of a growl.
“I’m sorry,” said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. “I didn’t mean to start slanging the others. But it wasn’t my fault anyway, was it?”
The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
“Oh, Aslan,” said Lucy. “You don’t mean it was? How could I—I couldn’t have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don’t look at me like that…oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn’t have been alone, I know not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?”
Aslan said nothing.
“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right—somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”
“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”
“Oh, dear,” said Lucy.
“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me—what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”
“Do you mean that is what you want me to do?” gasped Lucy.
“Yes, little one,” said Aslan.
“Will the others see you too?” asked Lucy.
“Certainly not at first,” said Aslan. “Later on, it depends.”
“But they won’t believe me!” said Lucy.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Aslan.
“Oh dear, oh dear,” said Lucy. “And I was so pleased at finding you again. And I thought you’d let me stay. And I thought you’d come roaring in and frighten all the enemies away—like last time. And now everything is going to be horrid.”
“It is hard for you, little one,” said Aslan. “But things never happen the same way twice. It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now.”
Lucy buried her head in his mane to hide from his face. But there must have been magic in his mane. She could feel lion-strength going into her. Quite suddenly she sat up.
“I’m sorry, Aslan,” she said. “I’m ready now.”
[pp. 119-122, 135-138]

Have you ever been in Lucy’s position? You hear that still, small voice calling you in a new direction, but allow other influences in your life keep you from following. You give in and travel that same path that leads nowhere. Then you hear that voice again and rejoice that you have been given a second chance, only to learn that the right way is not always the easy way.

I have often wondered “what would have happened” if I had followed the first time where God wanted to lead me in my life. Unfortunately, a stubborn, prideful nature coupled with a fear of risk-taking kept me from going boldly in that direction. The words of Aslan often echo in my thoughts “What would have happened…nobody is ever told that.” We all fail and regret is a fact of life, but God is always waiting to give us that second, third, fourth chance. Maybe one day we will learn to seek God, gain strength from spending time with Him, and be ready to go where He leads us...the first time.