Last Thursday, as I was proctoring my final, I found the joy of reading for pleasure again! I took with me C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. I had read it once, when I was a teenager, and wanted to read it again. It is a really beautifully written book, subtle and entertaining and convicting, the way only Lewis can do it. There is one passage that has been continually in my mind since I've read it. In light of some circumstances of my own life in the past year, and especially now in light of this current situation with my friend, it is so comforting and lovely. I thought I would share it.

The set up is, the narrator is in Heaven, talking with a great spirit about the reality of heaven and hell and how life is experienced differently for the saved and the lost. The narrator asks about the experience of the saved and the great spirit says:

"Ah,, the Saved...what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water."

I think this is a truth that we read time and time again in Scripture, and hopefully have experienced many times ourselves.

"...weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5.
"You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever." Psalm 30:11.

It is truly a beautiful thing, in the life of a Christian, to witness first hand, the promises and joys of genuine, mercy, compassion and grace. This is what has been on my mind lately.