In the line the witch in the wardrobe, Lucy asks Mister Beaver if Aslan is safe, to which Mister Beaver replies, safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you. I think that line when I read Psalm 1:45, especially verse 9 where it says, the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. The Lord is good, but he’s not safe. Now, we would prefer a safe, domesticated kind of deity, a grandfatherly kind of god who just wants a good time to be had by all. As CS Lewis wrote in another one of his books, but that’s not the kind of god who would dive headfirst into this world that is polluted by evil, to become a child, a man, and finally to die affixed atop the Roman tree of execution. That’s not a safe god who would do that. But a good god would. And that’s exactly who we have in Jesus Christ. Goodness of god incarnate in Jesus. The goodness of god, who would go all the way into the cross and into the grave and out again, alive and resurrected, in order that in his goodness he might redeem us. So thanks be to god that he isn’t safe, but he’s good. And he’s not just a king, he’s a good king. And his mercy is over all that he has made.