Reading Reflection:
September 25, 2011
T
he Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis, (Harper One, 1949)
My last article beckoned me to return to this wonderful essay of Lewis’s. I think Spurgeon’s use of the word sublime made me think of Lewis. This excerpt from his essay lends well to the far-sighted vision I was talking about:
he Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis, (Harper One, 1949)
My last article beckoned me to return to this wonderful essay of Lewis’s. I think Spurgeon’s use of the word sublime made me think of Lewis. This excerpt from his essay lends well to the far-sighted vision I was talking about:
And this brings me to the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendour, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star…In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely 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…For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the spendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in (42-43).Can you identify with this longing? As great as my joys can be on this side of eternity, often I feel like I am merely looking through the window. Like a bride-to-be gazes at that sparkling diamond on her finger, I look forward to that day when Christ will have transformed his people to be glorious as the most pure gems. So pure, that they are transparent. All you will see is holiness in its most captivating glory. While Lewis is right in saying, “Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is Monday morning,” he reminds us that this future glory should affect the way that we look at our neighbor. “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken” (45). Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we are amongst ordinary people, as Lewis would say.
