On June 28, 1963 Lewis writes to Mary Willis Shelburne:
“Think of yourself just as a seed patiently waiting in the earth:
waiting to come up a flower in the Gardner’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 is nearer now than when I began this letter.”
As I ponder Lewis’s words to
Shelburne…
I appreciate the idea of this
life being a Shadowlands, of “seeing through a glass darkly” and “now I know in
part, then I shall know face to face” (1Cor. 13:12). I was a storehouse of certain knowledge when I was young; the
trouble was that much of my certain knowledge was indigestible to many (most?)
people; it was hardtack that had to be soaked in grace and patience before it
could be eaten, and even then its nutritional value was questionable.
I know a lot less today, but I
think that’s a good thing in that I see Christ a bit clearer than decades ago.
It is like traveling toward the Rocky Mountains from the east; they look so
close at first and you think you’ll soon be there, but one hour passes and then
another and then another, and though they still look close you realize they are
far away. When we are young in Christ certainties of the Kingdom rise up before
us and we think we are there; we don’t know that we have many miles to travel
and many things to learn before we reach the foot of the mountains – and we
haven’t even begun the ascent!
While this life may be a
Shadowlands, what happens in this life matters; this life is not a land of dreams in terms of unreality, in
terms of it not being real; this life is very real. Some of the things we encounter
in this life as Christians may not last, such as pain and sorrow, but this life
is real and this life matters. Jesus Christ died in time-space history and our
sin and sins were dealt with by God on the Cross some 2,000 years ago – so this
life, this planet, eternally matters; our witness to others and our own lives
eternally matter. Christians have been dying to share the Gospel with others
for 2,000 years because there are two exit doors in this vestibule of life; one
is the door of the Good Shepherd and the other a door into an unfathomable
abyss. As Lewis might say, one door is labeled “God’s will” and the other
“Man’s Will”.
Jesus says, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor
spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more cloth you, O you of
little faith?” (Matthew 6:28 – 30).
Of course when Lewis writes about
the Shadowlands and uses terms such as drowsy
half-waking he is not suggesting that this life does not matter; he is
rather reminding us that we know so little and understand so little in this
life, and that the desire for joy and beauty and fullness that God has placed
within us will one day be consummated in His Presence.
“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and
of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his
face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They
will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and
they will reign forever and ever,” Revelation 22:3-5.
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