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.