SURPRISED BY JOY is the title of
C. S. Lewis' partial autobiography describing his conversion to Christianity.
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
This reminds me of the Adult Ed Class I taught at St. Francis, Macon GA on the Life of C. S. Lewis. Where have I placed those notes?
Anyway, this April & May in the Cottage Rectory I am surprised by COLOR.
After church this morning I snapped these photos that show the red of the Japanese Maple, the white of the tulips and Dogwood Blossoms, and the pink of my azaleas.
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| Grape Hyacinth |
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| Violet |
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| Violet |
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| Spring Beauty |
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| Crabapple |
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| My tulip |
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