Today's reading from C.S. Lewis and the above image highlighting a Billy Graham quote (which was on my Facebook homepage this morning) mesh together well. In The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III, Jack has this to say about Heaven:
The symbols under which Heaven is presented to us are (a) a dinner party, (b) a wedding, (c) a city, and (d) a concert. It would be grotesque to suppose that the guests or citizens or members of the choir didn’t know one another. And how can love of one another be commanded in this life if it is to be cut short at death?
Think of yourself just as a seed patiently waiting in the earth: waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time, up into the real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back on from there, will seem only a drowsy half- waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming.
It's hard for me to imagine Heaven - it's hard for most of us I suspect - after all, I remember the wonderfully interesting and intricate illustrations in Dante's Divine Comedy were only interesting and intricate during his tours of Hell and Purgatory, Heaven was regrettably devoid of both. The movie Star Trek: Generations view of Heaven (called the Nexus) was of a place devoid of adventure because everything was perfect and there was no risk. I think that this is a wall that many of us hit. I can't imagine a place without risk, without tears, without pain, without death - well, I can imagine it but I don't understand how it would work. I've heard more than one person, faced with their conception of immortality and Heaven, state that it would be boring and hellish when viewed as something that lasted forever. I think the problem is a lack of imagination - not a lack of fun or adventure on the part of Heaven.
It IS a lack of imagination of the part of many people which paints Heaven as dull. We also forget that we're promised a new heaven and a NEW EARTH, as well. The latter, I figure, is where loved critters likely end up, lol. I remember CS Lewis once musing about the possibility (likelihood?) that if on earth, an animal was a faithful companion and by sheer love (ours and theirs) achieved a kind of transcendence--well, maybe we bring them along with us into Paradise.
ReplyDeleteI probably mangled his thought, but you get the gist of the idea. But getting back to Heaven, look no further than Lewis' "The Great Divorce" for excellent ideas about what eternity just might look like. Recall the man on a horse, riding up....always going higher up and further in to the great unknown...
Your own first paragraph lists but 4 word-pictures suggesting Heaven's characteristics. Of them, a dinner party, a wedding, a concert and a city all suggest events/places wherein participation is key. We all will have a part to play.
As for me, long ago I made peace with the idea that Heaven could not be (at all) adequately described, only hinted at and alluded to. As we could in no wise adequately convey to a pre-born baby what All This Out Here comprises, surely the gap between This and Heaven is immeasurably greater.
Love the Lewis quotes! Keep 'em coming! :-)