One of the remarkable balances C.S. Lewis makes in his theology seems to be his focus on quiddity, the "this-ness" of created reality, but without losing the eager anticipation of heaven or the new creation, things unseen. Pastor John, how does C.S. Lewis strike this balance? He does do it well, and probably the best thing we could do is to just read him and watch him do it, instead of trying to formulate how he did it.

But I do think that Lewis does it well in large measure because in God's providence, Lewis came to faith by discovering the inadequacy of the lilies of the field, the inadequacies of the experience of northerness when he read his Norse mythology, because what he discovered was that his pangs of joyful longing as he saw beauty evaporated as soon as he turned to look at them.

And he was endlessly frustrated that he would never really be able to have what he thought he wanted, namely these stabs of joy. They came, they went, and then Lewis discovered God, and then he discovered Christ, and then he discovered the gospel, and then he discovered the creator of all things, and the goal of all things, and he realized that all of those things that had been trying to awaken him and he was trying to fasten on as the end in themselves were all pointers.

The affection of joy was a pointer, and the things that were awakening it, those mythologies that he was reading, they were all pointing towards the true myth, as he called it, namely Christianity. So probably Lewis is a good guide for us in cherishing the eternal, cherishing the unseen, cherishing God as the source and goal of all things, as well as being able to see the thisness and the beauty of this world, because God had brought him to faith through an appreciation of the thisness of things, and then showed him that they were all thick with God.

They were all pointing toward God, they were all created by God, and they were not ends in themselves. They were ways of knowing God, and unless you saw deep enough into them to get to the bottom of them and saw high enough over them to get to what they're pointing to, they will always disappoint you.

Thank you, Pastor John. We will be studying the enduring influence of C.S. Lewis later this fall on September 27, 28, and 29 here in Minneapolis at the Desiring God National Conference. The conference is titled "The Romantic Rationalist--God, Life, and the Imagination in the Work of C.S. Lewis." More details and registration will be available very soon at DesiringGod.org, on the blog, and under the "Events" tab.

I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening. (SILENCE)