Renewed Day by Day
In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace and the Narnian crew arrive after many adventures at Ramandu’s island (called World’s End). Here there is a table (Aslan’s table) set out each evening full of rich food for travelers, and every morning the food is taken away by a magical flock of birds that flies up from the sunrise.
Ramandu, we learn, though he looks like an old man, is a “retired” star, that is, he served his turn as a star in the sky and is now “growing younger” until he takes his position as a star again. Lewis records how Ramandu grows younger each morning when the flock of birds arrives:
“But Lucy, looking out from between the wings of the birds that covered her, saw one bird fly to the Old Man with something in its beak that looked like a little fruit, unless it was a little live coal, which it might have been, for it was too bright to look at. And the bird laid it in the Old Man’s mouth.” (Ch. 14)
Ramandu explains,
“Every morning a bird brings me a fire-berry from the valleys in the Sun, and each fire-berry takes away a little of my age. And when I have become as young as the child that was born yesterday, then I shall take my rising again and once more tread the great dance.” (Ch. 14)
Two things strike me in this story that relate to Scripture.
First, Lewis does not speak accidentally when he says that the fruit was like “a little live coal.” A live coal that touches the lips of a man reminds us of Isaiah 6. One of the seraphim (angelic beings) touches the prophet Isaiah’s lips with a live coal and says,
“Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
This ritual for Ramandu is like the vision of Isaiah — it represents his renewal and cleansing.
Second, this happens every morning. Ramandu rises at dawn every morning in order to meet the birds with their fire-berry. And each day he becomes a day younger until he is ready to take part in the great dance again. Lewis is drawing on what the Apostle Paul explains as our situation in 2 Corinthians 4:16. Paul concludes:
“...we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16)
Notice that Paul says this renewal happens “day by day.” Progressively. Over time. Through the efforts of a day. Not instantaneously. Not in a “poof” of magic.
We all know that our outer self, at least our body, is wasting away. We know that day by day we move toward the eventual dissolution of our bodies and the end of our earthly lives. The Apostle Paul felt this keenly since he endured physical hardships for the sake of the gospel (beatings, even a stoning!). He had also felt the uncertainty of his work and ministry, since from an external view it did not appear particularly successful.
But we have hope that God who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us and bring us into his presence. And that resurrection has already begun in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit — who is renewing us “day by day.”
But we often ask questions like this, “Why doesn’t God renew me all at once? Surely he has the power to do so? Surely he could make me free from angry or sinful thoughts. He could implant in me love for those around me in a moment. He could take away my anxieties and fears today.”
Or this can come even closer. “If he loved me, he would relieve me from this burden.” “If he cared, he would have answered my prayer before today.”
Our temptation is to look at the slowness of our progress and ask, “Is God really at work?”
But this forgets the nature of God’s work in this age. Just as he teaches us to prepare for death through the slow weakening of our physical bodies, so also he acquaints us with the new creation through the slow and patient work of sanctification. He renews us day by day.
The story about Ramandu illustrates how God gives us grace “day by day” for our renewal.
Whatever God sends you this morning as part of your calling to be his child and to live in his ways is the means by which he is renewing you day by day.
We are (I am) quick to push away the methodical, patient, day-to-day renewal that God sends through his word and in our life circumstances. And for this we should repent. Our desire for quick-fixes and our impatience with God’s ways lead us to confess our sins…