On This Night

On this night of nights, when the world is about to step into a new age, I feel such stirrings inside of me that I doubt I shall sleep much. We are being given chance after chance and I am so grateful that I am almost afraid to think about it. How many people, when asked what they wish for, mouth the words, "peace on earth?" Yet how many of these same people are willing to stand up and be counted among those ready to do what is necessary to achieve this peace?

Tomorrow morning we will inaugurate a new president. Barack Obama, a man who has faced many of the same trials the rest of us have; a man who has defied the odds on so many levels it is inconceivable; a man who is just that, a man, but who will step into the light ready to lead us as far as we are willing to go. It is the dawning of that age so many of us have waited for. It has come before and been dropped dead in its tracks. I pray that this time we will do better.

Far away, on a distant mountain, stands a young Aslan. Tawny and strong, he too stands in the light, but he is so much younger and still has so far to go. A babe in the woods who has yet to find his true strength, he stands out among his peers. The high spirited cub who endured with vim and vigor whatever came his way has become a magnificent creature who is not afraid to get his hands dirty, to work the most menial of jobs for as many hours as it takes to make ends meet; yet they don't. One after another, he steps into the traps and snares of a world that tests him at every turn. Willing to pay the price, no matter what suffering it causes him, unwilling to sacrifice his standards to lighten his load, he grows stronger. I see the light around him growing brighter and brighter and know that he is the hope of our world, the standard bearer for the brightest and best. I watch him with bated breath wondering if anyone else notices and perhaps hoping they do not because he needs this time to grow up and grow strong. He needs this time to discover himself and his strengths. We need this time to nurture and encourage him.

In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..." That is so often the thought of heroes. Unaware of who they really are and how their mark upon this world will resonate for time to come, but I believe Barack Obama has a good idea that what is said here tomorrow will be much noted and long remembered. And I believe that young black man I met in an Illinois small town will be a great president. And I believe those times I walked through the mountains near Fresno, where I saw a young Aslan, meant there is hope for all of us.