shadowland and a glimpse behind the veil

his morning I’m sticking with the topic of C.S. Lewis for another day. The great thinker’s writing is “in my head” right now. Here’s a quote to get the ball rolling:

We do not merely want to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. (C.S. Lewis – The Weight of Glory)

I’ve explored this theme myself (10 Life-Charged Words), but Lewis manages to get to the heart of it here. I believe his words help me understand just why I am so captivated by great art, great music, great writing, great preaching, great conversation. And it also helps explain why seeing something “live” is always 1,000% better than viewing or listening to a recording.

You see, beauty isn’t something we simply look at; at its best beauty is something we want to crawl into, to wrap ourselves in; beauty is something we inhabit.

BEAUTY & GOD: It’s my conviction that we’re really entering into God when we engage creativity. There are literally hundreds of descriptive names for God, but the one that always strikes me as most complete is “Creator.” God is the genesis of creation, the genius that gives birth to art, the life that animates beauty, the vitality that sustains creation.

When we are creative, then, even in the smallest way, we are honoring the image of God that resides at the core of our nature.

So I’ll turn this conversation back on Lewis, and suggest that the “beauty” of his deep and creative mind serves as a vehicle to teach us something about the nature of God. Lewis would quickly point out that the beauty we experience on Earth is only a shadow, a glimpse of the deep and overwhelming beauty that is the nature of God and the reality of “heaven.”

But I would have to counter that, through writing such as that of C.S. Lewis, the crack is a little wider, the light a little brighter, and the clarity of the truth about God that much more pure, and deep, and inviting.

In truth, and in promise - DEREK