Surprised by Joy
In all the snow, I’ve had a great opportunity to pick up some books that I love but never finished. Particularly, a collection called Pilgrim Souls with memoir essays from Christian thinkers and writers all over the world.
The essay that most hit home was “Surprised by Joy” where C.S. Lewis gives us a lens into his childhood and how he experienced what he describes something deeper than pleasure–joy.
He gives us three moments in his life where he experiences the grace of joy–Lewis describes one of these experiences as being child standing under a currant bush and remembering earlier that morning when his brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery where they played. For no explicit reason, Lewis says he felt a “sensation” or an “Milton’s enormous bliss of Eden”…It was as though some longing that was fullfilled and “everything else that had ever happened to [him] was insignificant.”
I wonder as we reflect on our childhoods if we would be able to remember experiences of joy, an overwhelming feeling of…what the world will be some day. When have we felt Eden?
Joy is amazing, like some gas that expands to fill whatever space we give it. Neat thoughts, glad the snow gave you a gift or two.