“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and his compulsion is our liberation.”
- C.S. Lewis

I love to read. I always have.

When I was a child, probably around the ages of 5 or 6, I would write my own stories (as best as any 5 or 6 year old can), draw pictures alongside of them (in the style of the picture books I owned of course) and then staple the pages together so that it seemed like a real book. As I got older, books like The Secret Garden, The Nancy Drew Series, The Sweet Valley Twins, the E.B. White books, books by Beverly Cleary & Judy Blume were among my favorites. In high school my interest in books aligned with whatever was handed down in English class: Hawthorne, Emerson, Hardy, Shakespeare were the natural favs. I was never big on poetry (although, Robert Sean Leonard & Ethan Hawke did help pique my interest a bit there). And then in college, my interests became more philosophical and period-centric as an English major.

These days, my interests have taken on a wide range of genres: from the fun, frilly girly book (thank you Sophie Kinsella!) to historical fiction to biographies & auto-biographies to theology.

One of my newly favorite authors is C.S. Lewis. I remember reading some of the Narnia books in elementary school (I went to a private, Christian school for grades K-4), but my young mind could not possibly grasp the meaning behind the allegories prevalent throughout the series. In college, I read The Screwtape Letters, but again, it’s deeper meaning went over my head as did an appreciation for, what I’ve come to currently regard as, the genius of Mr. Lewis.

Over the last year, I’ve read several of his books, amongst them being The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, and a re-reading of The Screwtape Letters.  I think it was Till We Have Faces that pushed me into the Lewis fan club. The subtitle is “A Myth Retold” as it is a retelling of the Greek mythology of Cupid and Psyche, told from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister, Orual.

Throughout the book, the ugly Orual has an unhealthy, possessive love for her beautiful, younger sister Psyche, which, eventually, comes to harm Psyche. Orual is incredibly bitter over the fate met her and Psyche and hopes that, by chronicling her seemingly unjust tale, the injustice of the gods will be brought to light and rectified.

After laying out her entire argument before the god of the mountain who she finally meets at the end of her journey, Orual writes:

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

This, I believe, is the most beautiful statement and moment in the book. Whatever one claims to believe (agnosticism, atheism, etc.), I don’t think that it is possible for one to come to a different conclusion than she does at that moment.

That impossibility is what amazes me about Lewis: there is a remarkable depth of insight into the human psyche in each of his books which can be understood by all audiences and the conclusions reached by the end are seemingly incontrovertible.

I’m encouraged and inspired as I read and re-read his work and expect that the more I delve into his writing, the more of a fan I’ll become.