Aren't we all searching like that? Aren't we all secretly hoping to come upon the sort of mystery and beauty that will fascinate and enchant our whole lives?
As I think about my love of art, music, poetry, and theater, I know I love it because it fascinates. It enchants. But it cannot be the end. I remember the way C.S. Lewis came to know Jesus. He was searching for a form of enchantment he called Joy, and he says this:
I saw that all my waitings and watchings for Joy, all my vain hopes to find some mental content on which I could, so to speak, lay my finger and say "This is it," had been a futile attempt to contemplate the enjoyed. All that such watching and waiting ever could find would be either an image (Asgard, the Western Garden, or what not) or a quiver in the diaphragm. I should never have to bother again about these images or sensations. I knew now that they were merely the mental track left by the passage of Joy — not the wave but the wave's imprint on the sand. The inherent dialectic of desire itself had in a way already shown me this; for all images and sensations, if idolatrously mistaken for Joy itself, soon honestly confessed themselves inadequate. All said, in the last resort, "It is not I. I am only a reminder. Look! Look! What do I remind you of?" ~~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
When I encounter beauty, I remember it's a wave's imprint. It's a reminder. Everything we experience--the best of it, the absolute most enchanting thing--is simply a signpost pointing to God.
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2 comments:
So true and so beautifully said, Heather. Thank you for daily enriching my life with your wonderful and, yes, enchanting words.
I like the way you summed that up: "When I encounter beauty, I remember it's a wave's imprint. It's a
reminder. Everything we experience--the best of it, the absolute most
enchanting thing--is simply a signpost pointing to God". It is so easy to forget that these days.
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