Day 1085 · Year 3 · The Great Tradition
Lewis on the ache that points somewhere
A converted atheist took human longing seriously.
Today's passage
Ecclesiastes 3:11
11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
C. S. Lewis came to Christ in part because he could not explain the deep, unsatisfied longing he kept feeling in beautiful moments — sunsets, music, friendship, autumn evenings. He concluded that creatures are not made with longings they were never meant to satisfy; the longing must point somewhere. Ecclesiastes says God 'has put eternity in man's heart.' That is why nothing here is ever quite enough. The ache is not a defect. It is a homing signal.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
C. S. Lewis · Modern · 20th c. · England
C. S. Lewis argued that our deepest longings are not noise to be silenced but signals that we were made for something this world cannot finally give — Someone we were made to know.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What has God put in the human heart, according to this verse?
- What does that explain about why nothing here is ever quite enough?
- Where have you been treating a longing as a defect when it might be a signal?
A prayer to pray
Bring the unsatisfied ache to God. Ask him to be its true home.