I read The Silver Chair again recently, the sixth book in C S Lewis’ Narnia series, so when I spied the Narnia colouring book in a basket at home, I popped it into my suitcase, along with a tin of felt tip pens, to bring on holiday.
While flicking through the pages one evening, I decided on a quote from the book I had just finished.
'You would not have called to me, unless I had been calling to you.'
Aslan
The Silver Chair, C S Lewis
I began to fill in the letters and shapes with my pens - grey lettering with dark highlights, light blue for the myriad cloud-like shapes floating all over the double paged outline.
As I coloured, I wondered if it could help me pray. Might the rhythm of pen on paper ease away distractions, helping create space for focus in the same way as walking often does, the simple rhythm of placing one foot in front of the other - actions connecting the physical to the spiritual.
And in the space, a thought flowed from an unseen pen held by an unseen hand.
I could pray for God to colour in the shapes of people’s lives.
We all have blank spaces within us that are waiting to be brought to life by our artist God. Vast empty plains and small overlooked corners that exist without the joy of His colour. He has an immense palette of shades and hues that He uses to fill in the outline of us that he has already drawn.
He makes us in his image but God is not just a black and white outline. He may be like that in our own profoundly inadequate idea of him but it is not the truth. God is the fullest spectrum of light, emitting an array of colour beyond the imagination and he is making us to be more like himself in order to be a living exhibition of his glory!
There is simply no room for comparison and envy in such a truth. Each one of us, living in submission to being saturated by the colour of grace and love, can truly only respond with gratitude and worship. There is freedom to be found in knowing that God takes great pleasure in his work, that he deftly tints and highlights, blends and shades with perfect understanding of his craft in order to produce living artwork worthy of being given a place in his house.
It is a tremendous privilege to be chosen by him to personally receive the fullness of such masterful creativity within ourselves. It is also an honour to be a living extension of the work, to be visual representations of God’s extraordinary colour in the world around us.
Prayer is one way of joining him in his creative work in the lives of others. We are invited to participate in this immense and beautiful imaginative work, a work that Jesus began during his ministry and that he continues today. It is the Kingdom work of pervading lives, places and moments with the colours of eternity, his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. As the Narnia quotation reminds us, we call to God because he has already called to us.
The outline in my Narnia colouring book isn’t complete yet. It still needs work and time. It serves as a reminder that God’s work, in us and in the world, is ongoing. When I next pick up my pens, I hope that I remember to pray for his colour to fill the empty spaces. I hope that I remember to consider the depth and breadth of God’s work. It is on display continually everywhere and in everyone if we have eyes to see it and the willingness to accept the invitation to join with him in his work.
