Why I love Lewis

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."  -C.S. Lewis.   Mhmmmmm. That quote alone sums up many good things; Lewis, tea, and books.

The first C.S. Lewis book I read was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  My sister and I snuggled up next to our mum and heard the story of the Pevensies, the witch, betrayal, and the Love of a Lion for the first time.  I was probably seven or eight.

Now it's years later, but that story- as well as any and all of C.S. Lewis' other works- continues to have an indelible impact on my life.

Lewis had an ability- a gift- of telling the straight Truth in a way that was both beautiful, honest, and memorable. He spoke in metaphors and stories that made sense- connecting the mind and the heart by the way he described things.  A friend mentioned to me something she had been reading lately about how Truth is always beautiful. Looking at Lewis, he seemed to understand that.  God is Truth, and He made Truth, and He made beauty, so of course when it comes down to it, truth will be beautiful and that which is really beautiful will be Truth. The truth I've seen in Lewis' books is always a beautiful truth.  Sometimes it's uncomfortable too, but then isn't that often the nature of both Truth and true Beauty.

Another thing I appreciate love is that Lewis saw clearer than most the curtain of time and eternity.  His keen desire for something greater than this world (past the shadowlands) is so evident in his writing, both fiction and non-fiction.   In the Chronicles of Narnia, this shows up many times, but one that sticks out to me is the last paragraph or two of The Last Battle.

The dream is ended

"The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot describe them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that the all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real stor. All their life in this world and all of their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." -The Last Battle

^^ THAT ^^  Lewis is marvelous.

Wake up and get out of bed

"We read of spiritual efforts, and our imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them.  I am appalled to see how much of the change which I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary.  The real work seems still to be done.  It is so fatally easy to confuse an aesthetic appreciation of the spiritual life with the life itself- to dream that you have waked, washed, and dressed, & then to find yourself still in bed."  

-C.S. Lewis

I love this quote because it is something I have felt in my own life many times and something I want to fight against. It's that thing that makes me believe that I am noble and faithful and have done great things and then find myself in bed with the covers pulled over my face because I'm afraid of the shadows playing games on the floor.  The bounds of my comfort zone are merely my own fears  but actually getting up out of bed and putting my feet on the cold floor is the step hardest to take.   

Jesus is the one who takes my hand and helps me take that first step out of bed. He is the One that reminds me that being awake is infinitely better than remaining under the covers.

Good morning!

~Abby

'O! Wanderers in the shadowed land'

"O!  Wanderers in the shadowed land
despair not! For though dark they stand,
all woods there be must end at last,
and see the open sun go past:
the setting sun, the rising sun
the day's end, or the day begun
For east or west all woods must fail..."

-Frodo, The Fellowship of the Ring 

What did I say?   Beautiful.  And so very symbolic and True.   'the shadowed land' makes me think of C.S. Lewis' description of earth "the Shadowlands."  We are wanderers on this earth. But every dark wood has an end- and then the sunrise!

Right now I'm wandering on, learning as I go, feeling the wind on my cheeks and the biting cold in my bones.  Right now I'm growing thanks to the grace of God and His work in me through the Bible, situations, and people who love Jesus.   Every day I take steps forward, holding his hand, gazing at beauty and feeling the thump thump of the song of tomorrow in my heart.

A fellow wanderer in the shadowed land,
~Abby