“The righteous will live by his faith”
– Habakkuk 2:4
I first heard of George MacDonald in a play about the life of C.S. Lewis. Like Lewis did so masterfully himself, MacDonald uses stories—fairy tales, essentially—to illustrate some of the essential truths of Christianity.
The Princess and the Goblin, published in 1872, is one such story. It explores many Christian themes, but the experience of Curdie Peterson, the boy miner, helps bring into sharp focus the transformative power of child-like faith.
Curdie is a smart, courageous boy who has devoted his time to working nights in the mines, trying to figure out what the villainous goblins are planning. Bravely, he ventures deep into the heart of the goblins’ territory, only to get lost when the ball of string he uses to help retrace his steps fails him. The pickaxe that anchors the thread in place has been moved by some of the hideous creatures that live in the mine, and eventually Curdie becomes a prisoner of the goblins, condemned to die. He is then rescued by eight year-old Princess Irene, who, even though she is terrified of the dark mines and the goblins, has obediently followed a different, invisible thread given to her by her grandmother.
Curdie’s experience highlights for Christians the dangers of anchoring our work in our own strength. Even though both his plans and his courage are praiseworthy, and even though he is very nearly successful in his exploits, Curdie shows that acting in good faith is not the same as acting in great faith, and this is confirmed by Irene’s own supernaturally-endowed courage.
Curdie also serves as a symbol of those who experience Christ yet are still unable to believe. Even though Irene constantly tells Curdie that she is following her grandmother’s magic thread as she successfully leads them out of the mines, he remains skeptical and when taken to meet Irene’s grandmother, he cannot see her. “Seeing is not believing,” Irene’s grandmother remarks, “it is only seeing.”
Here, MacDonald reminds us that the world will try to explain away God. It may account for God’s acts and movement with logic, science, or theories. Or, even like many of those who actually witnessed Jesus’ miracles, people will see and still not believe.
Eventually, after being visited by Irene’s grandmother in a dream—itself a reminder that Jesus is so often the initiator at the moment when people come to faith—Curdie is given a thread of his own to follow. He doesn’t understand why or how, and it takes him to unexpected places, but faithfully and obediently follow it he does; as a result he plays a pivotal role in rescuing his community from the goblins’ nefarious schemes.
Unbelief is a complicated thing. It persists for all sorts of reasons. But child-like, obedient faith is so simple. It is the very thing that prepares us, enables us, and allows us to serve God in the way he wants us to. Trust and obey, He says.
George Macdonald’s story beautifully reminds me of the redemptive power of obedience through faith. It convicts me of my own tendency to see faith as something theoretical, to be defended, rather than something concrete, to be lived out and proved by works, works done not in our power, but set aside for us by and in the power of the Lord Jesus himself.
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