The Scent of a Flower We Have Not Found

I love C. S. Lewis. He has a knack for saying things that my spirit feels but struggles to find expressions for. I stumbled across The Weight of Glory, and my heart understood it immediately.  Our love of beauty is not about the object itself--- it's about a desire for something we have never actually felt or known the name of.  Our longing is not for the pure aesthetic values of well timed movement and symetry or an especially well structured sentece. It is to see and absorb pure and unadulterated glory and beauty. And that can only be found in the Lord.

"The books and music in which we thought beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.  These things---the beauty, the memory of our own past---are good images of what we really desire, but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn to dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.  For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."

- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

As a semi-related aside----a few years ago, I had the privileged of living in Oxford, England, for three weeks. While I was there, I studied the literature of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, two inklers for whom my affinity runs deep. I thought that I might share with you a few images from my stay there.

one of the college's gardens

The Eagle and Child

gardens outside Lewis' home

Lewis' home

Lewis' study

Lewis' desk

Lewis' grave - At Lewis' church, we met the most lovely, old couple who once attended church with Lewis.  After we looked around, they offered our little group lemonade at the back of the church and chatted about what they remembered Lewis and his brother to be like---very pleasant people, but not very good Anglicans. Apparently they had the bad habit of coming and going during services as they pleased.

Favorite Lewis Work: Despite creating a Narnia in my closet, I'm going to go with Til We Have Faces.

Favorite Quotes from Oxford Friends:

"No noose is good noose!" - Dr. Margaret Clerici 

"Mexican jokes? I love Mexican jokes!" apparently being PC isn't that important over on the other side of the pond ... 

"Travis, we leave you for five minutes and you join a cult?!?!"

At the Tate Modern: “Where’s the ART?” …and the room goes silent

“So what are you studying?” Nick: “Oh, you couldn’t possibly understand.”

I know. They're almost as inspiring as C.S. Lewis.


But my personal favorite:

“My silverware is not for picking snot!” – Vaas, our gen-yu-wine chef 

For the record, I’m pretty sure that we were the first group of students to ever get the spoons confiscated for the rest of the program. We were such rebels. It's the American way.