Saturday
A visit with C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis understood how deeply God wants to give gifts, to give grace, to all of us. He captures the heart of God and God’s grace in the following passages:

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics (philosophers) and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can’t imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (The Weight of Glory, 3-4).

“St. Augustine says, ‘God gives where He finds empty hands.’ A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift” (Letters to an American Lady, 73).