Quotes from C. S. Lewis

Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher (Culicicapa ceylonensis) by W Kwong

In today’s Creation Moments article, A WONDROUS BUT TERRIFYING CREATION, these quotes from C. S. Lewis caught my interest. The article is actually about Louie Zamperini’s experiences, especially with nature.

C.S. Lewis writes about how our experience with the creation awakens within us a sense that there is more – something other, something beyond the natural world. He writes in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Lewis also observes in his book Miracles that we can only savor this world for the wonder that it really is when we appreciate it as the creation of a supernatural God. “Only Super-naturalists really see Nature…. To treat Nature as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back and then you will see … this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas; this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes, and toads. How could you have ever thought this was ultimate reality? … The “vanity” (futility) to which she was subjected was her disease not her essence.”

Like all of us, Nature – though wondrous and awesome – is in need of redemption. The “essence” of Nature points us to her Awesome Maker. And the “disease” within her – the futility, corruption, and harsh cruelty – instructs us to anxiously long for our full redemption. As the Bible puts it,

“…the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature (the anxious longing of the creation) waits for the manifestation of the sons of God…. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:18-19, 22)

To see that article …

Like yesterday’s I’m Little but…., the hawk would not be trying to catch and eat the squirrel had it not been for the curse and our fallen world. It will be great when things are made right. The main question is, are you prepared for when that takes place?

The Gospel Message