reading... c.s. lewis

Two quotes from C.S. Lewis that from things I have been reading lately.  When you are sick you have the chance to read more books than normal.  :)  That may be one of the only good things about being sick.  Everything seems to slow down and there is more quiet time to enjoy. 

"The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast.  We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy.  It is not hard to see why.  The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose as obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or football match, have no such tendency.  Our father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasent inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

I agree.   I am very thankful for all the wonderful things that God has blessed me with on this earth.  He is good.  Spending time with friends or family, enjoying music, and seeing beauty outside in nature is wonderful.   But this quote is so true, without the pain of sickness and not having everything that we think we desire, we would not long for heaven.  Praise God for sickness because it points us even more towards him.   Which brings me to my other C.S Lewis quote for the day, from the Last Battle.  It is from the end of the Last Battle.  I do love the Chronicles of Narnia so much (not those dumb movies that they have made about them... not to get off topic or anything, but I watched the Voyage of the Dawn Treader while I was sick... they ruined the whole book, the book is a 1000 times better... sorry, I just had to rant).  One reason I love the books is because I fondly remember my mother reading them to us as we went on camping trips.  :)

"Then Aslan turned to them and said: '...you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead.  The term is over: the holidays have begun, The dream is ended: this is the morning...'
And for us thsi is the end of all the stories, and we can most truely say that they all lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

Love Love Love!!  This description makes so much sense to me.  That is all I have for tonight.  I have to finish up a presentation for tomorrow at work.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will see all my family!!!  YAY!!!  They make me happy, even when they make fun of me.  I love them all very much.