~John 15:12~
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
I am in awe of the immensity of this command.
"When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes. It is certainly a burden of glory not only beyond our deserts but also, except in rare moments of grace, beyond our desiring; we are inclined, like the maidens in the old play, to deprecate the love of Zeus. But the fact seems unquestionable."
~C. S. Lewis, from The Problem of Pain
I have been setting the tone of my mornings by reading a selection from A Year with C. S. Lewis. In my humble opinion, no one compares. The man was simply brilliant beyond imagination. One paragraph and I am blow away.
I have this book sitting on my desk. Thanks for the reminder to take in a little of his God-given wisdom. I agree with you about his brilliance!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful, deep passage to quote. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful quote! C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite writers. This book looks great! I read *Surprised by Joy* this past year.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a great book! We have a lot of CS Lewis around here, but not that one. I'l have to pick up a copy. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI have that book and love it. Lewis does a wonderful job of cutting to the core of a central Christian theme and explaining it with eloquence, beauty and thoroughness that always takes my breath away.
ReplyDeleteAmen! I just bought a pile of books he's written that I've not read yet. He is amazingly brilliant, in more ways than we will ever realize, I think.
ReplyDeleteI just got a fresh perspective on his brilliance outside of his faith (I would never try to separate him from his faith) by reading all these skeptic views of Narnia. They can't say enough about his mind, but they refuse to accept his faith as well.
He was brilliant and the best-read man in the last century (they give him that tag), but I also accept his faith on top of his amazing mind. Which makes his writing even more potent, I think.
Have a great day!
Trish
http://www.trishlawrence.com/blog
I actually have that book by my bed right now too! It was the only C.S. Lewis book that my tiny library had, so I checked it out. I'm trying to get tickets to The Screwtape Letters, which was made into a play and showing here in Chicago. I love that book...and basically anything else he has written.
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