love

"We read books to know we are not alone" -C.S. Lewis

Do we love to know we are not alone? We are not alone. We are not the only ones loving, and getting hurt by our love. Do we love to know we are not alone? If we never loved. we would never experience the beauty of it, yet we also might not experience the pain of it. God made love for us to enjoy and to experience. But even when the pain of love comes, God grants us the strength we need. This brings my mind to a quote by C.S. Lewis, who experienced the mixed joy and devastating pain of love.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certianly
be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you
must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements;
lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

Jack Lewis is a man who has captured my respect and attention. He was a man of deep intellectual thinking, yet he also went on to write some of the most inspiring wonderful children's stories of several generations. He was a man who did not strive to become popular or respected, but through his speeches and books and kindness, he earned himself a very good reputation. You may wander what this man has to do with anything anyways. Well I will tell you. To my discovery I found that this man experienced the immense joy and excruciating pain of love. Joy Davidson Gresham, was an extraordinary woman, who captured the heart of this extraordinary man. Jack experienced such joy and fulfillment in his life, thru this beautiful woman. Several months after marriage, Lewis's "Joy" was seemed to be robbed from him, when due to tragedy, Joy died by cancer. In the weeks and months that followed her death, Jack experienced deep sadness. Yet even as this man walked thru the valley of the shadow of death, he found comfort and joy and yes even love, in his young son Douglas. I believe that if Mr. Lewis was sitting here with me today, he would be sure to tell me that he never for a moment regrets giving his heart and love to his beautiful wife. Even though his love was hurt and broken, it did not die with her. It forever lived on in his heart. He loved. He knew he was not alone. I find myself to be the kinda person who shelters my love, who often finds myself wanting to lock it into that coffin, he never let it get hurt. But then I remember an image in my mind that I shall never........no never....forget. The image of a man. A man walking down a road toward a horizon. A horizon that outlined the image of a crude arrangement of two pieces of wood. A man who is dirty. Who's robe is a mer rag. A walking stick in hand. Lines on his weathered face. Yet there is something very captivating about this man. I so clearly see this man in my mind. His eyes are bright and shining. His words are captivating. He speaks love. He slowly but steadily walks toward the cross. Around him thousands of people mock and scorn him, spit on him. Yet he walks on. Then I see him again. His hands and feet are pierced. His head is bleeding under a twisted crown of thorns. He is hanging from the cross. His body is broken. The weight of the world is pressing down upon him, crushing him. Every sin, upon him is laid. But his eyes still shine with care and love. He still speaks love and hope. He cries out to his father to forgive those who put him upon that cross. He cries out to his father to forgive..........me. That is the love that I see and that I long for. Even when I am hurt and my love for others brings pain. I shall never stop I shall never give up. I shall remember the love that was displayed and so freely given in that image. Even when the pain of love comes, I shall not stop. He did not stop. Nor shall I. Love is crucial to life.
-EmilyElizabeth