ETERNITY In Our Hearts and In Our Eyes

I will never forget that day.

My Mother had passed into eternity

just days before.

I was sitting on the deck at my brother's house, her last earthly home,

in the middle of a wind storm.

The trees were swaying so hard

I thought they might come

down to touch me.  

And in the middle of the roaring,

I was suddenly aware that something had shifted 

in my perception.

I felt a veil being lifted

for just a moment.

Heaven was closer than I had ever realized.

Jesus was at home with me here,

just as closely as He was at home

with my Mother there.

So, when the chapters for this week's study of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces fell open to the picture Lewis paints of the thin veil between this earthly reality and that something more, I knew right where my heart would rest.  

Those memories of brushing eternity never fade.

Because Lewis was so very sure that all true myth is created from a longing put in the human heart to point us to the ONE TRUE STORY that God has created, I have been eager to unpack the myth that he re-tells through this book. I am so thankful for Michele Morin's online study over at her site:

Living Our Days.

Her discussion points bring so much fullness to the story! This week I was faced, square on, with Orual's own progression into a closed and hard heart.

When she crosses into that land of beauty that I mentioned here  last week, she is suddenly overjoyed by the sight of her sister, Psyche, long thought dead, just on the other side of the river. But when Psyche invites Orual to open her eyes and view the wonders of a land beyond this earthly plane, Orual just cannot open her heart. Even when a glimpse is given to her, when she is alone later that night, as she blinks her eyes and finds the image fading, then gone for good, her heart chooses to clamp down ever more tightly on the possibility that something beyond this NOW can exist.

And I wept.

Not just for Orual,

and not just for any I love 

who choose to remain in hardness of heart.

No, my eyes were also weeping

for my own heart.

Having once tasted of that blissfully

thin veil,

And having once rejoiced that

Heaven is HERE

just as much as THERE

although I may not see it,

How could I ever doubt my Sweet Lord's Purposes

in any pain this life might carry?

My mind was taken back, yet again, to an early morning Devotional Time, when my children were homeschooling, and I started my days by listening to Elisabeth Elliot, and her Gateway to Joy radio broadcast. The days were long and hard, with teenagers testing boundaries, unsteady finances, and preparations for traveling with our family's Drama Ministry.  So, when Elisabeth quoted this poem and spoke of God's ETERNAL purpose in pain, I held onto the last line of this verse. Just today, I was able to find a posting of that poem, and her article. You can read the whole article by clicking here if you desire.

The Thorn

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged Him for one priceless gift that I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
    I cried, ‘But Lord! this is a thorn! and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift which Thou hast given me.’
He said, ‘My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.’
I took it home, and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
 As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace:

He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil that hides His face.

--Martha Snell Nicholson

He never meant for the struggles and the pain to be the final vision for our days. No, they are meant to pin aside that veil. His Face is the JOY SET BEFORE US! And He is the one standing on the other side of the river, beckoning each one of us to come and see JUST HOW MUCH MORE HE IS WAITING TO GIVE US.

Would you join me in this prayer today?

Here in this place of STILLNESS

The face of Jesus can become

even more precious 

if we would let Him open our hearts 

to find the beauty of eternity,
the beauty of HIS Presence.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,  and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength  he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms"

Ephesians 1:17-20 NIV 

If you are interested in reading any of the posts pertaining to the book study on C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, you can find an index by clicking here.

I am linking today with
Suzie Eller, #LiveFreeThursday