REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & ART

          "My name is also Ransom," said the Voice.       It was some time before the purport of this saying dawned upon him.  He whom the other worlds call Maleldil, was the world's ransom, his own ransom, well he knew.  But to what purpose was it said now?  Before the answer came to him he felt its insufferable approach and held out his arms before him as if he could keep it from forcing open the door of his mind.  But it came.  That that was the real issue.  If he now failed, this world also would hereafter be redeemed.  If he were not the ransom, Another would be.  Yet nothing was ever repeated.  Not a second crucifixion: perhaps – who knows – not even a second Incarnation...  some act of even more appalling love, some glory of yet deeper humility.  For he had seen already how the pattern grows and how from each world it sprouts into the next through some other dime...

I'm going to be honest and say first that I have no idea what I'm going to say. There. That makes me feel better, eh? During Easter weekend we had very dear friends staying with us. The oldest of the Helwig children had borrowed A Wrinkle in Time the month before. He came back very much excited and wanted to know if there were more books by that author (Madleine L'Engle.) Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to hear that I was happy... moved... to be able to tell him that no only were there more books by the same author but that she wrote three more in that series involving Meg and Charles Wallace. These books, along with C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy and some of his others that make me excited and hopeful for our kids to see the kingdom in the everyday. Here's the weirdness (and bear with me, I promise I have a point.) I started reading the Harry Potter books this past week. I'm a very fast reader. It's a blessing a curse, trust me. I...

Those of you who know me know that my two favorite authors are C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle (yes, I'm a Narnia fan.  But my favorite Lewis novel is actually Perelandra  and every time I re-read it I end up in tears for the possibility of what we, as humanity, lost the moment we fell in the garden.) I've read this quote by C.S. Lewis before.  But when I rediscovered it today, it made a deeper impact especially considering yesterday's post: 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 an 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 a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father...

Rusty and I caught part of the Narnia movie on tv the other night. It was the part where Edmund is starting to understand that the witch really does suck and he's made a terrible mistake. I so identify with Edmund. I always have. When I first read the Narnia books, when I was nine years old, I wanted to be like Lucy. I wanted to be the one who went in with everything to believe in, just happy to be there getting to experience it all. But I knew that Edmund felt more familiar. I hated that. He just seemed like such a whiner and so unhappy for himself and everyone around him! But as I've gotten older I realized I had come to like Edmund. He's just so human and when he finally is saved he is so thankful. In the book, as well as the movie, there is a small scene when Edmund and Aslan are talking. Edmund's brother and sisters come running up, having just found out he is alive and back in their camp. Aslan tells them not to speak of what had happened becaus...