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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Have you ever finished a book, be it Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings or any other excellent fictional tale and found within yourself a desire for the story to be true, a yearning to be a part of it?  What is it about the human heart that resonates so strongly with story?  We yearn to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, hence the plethora of fan clubs devoted to various books and movies.  While many of these fables differ radically in their plot and character development, there seems to be a small string that weaves throughout these stories whispering words of truth and pulling on the strings of our own heart.  Through the many novels, fiction, and fantasy I have read, I have begun to notice and hear the whisper more acutely: peace, joy, calamity, tragedy, loss, rejection, redemption, sacrifice, love, triumph, vanquish, restoration, consummation.  We would not have to search far to find these words powerfully present and at work in the stories we love.  In fact, the most popular stories of all are those that portray these words to the fullest and fiercest extent.  These, among others, are the words of an eternal soul, which all humans possess: “He has set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  These eternal words represent an eternal reality that finds its deepest meaning in the real and true story of Jesus Christ.  Thus, the stories we love can act like a diving board launching us back into the deep waters of our own story, as we discover that all previous stories simply kindled the fire of our burning desires.  They prepare us to accept and revel in the one true story, of which all others were merely a pointer.

C.S. Lewis had a profound understanding of what I am trying to express and he communicates it beautifully in The Weight of Glory:

We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience.  We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name.  Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter… The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was the longing.  These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.  For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (Lewis 3)

This is what it looks like to have eternity set in our hearts.  The longings of our soul, which are triggered by the eternal truths so present in our beloved stories, are simply a reminder that “there was once a happiness belonging to Man, of which only the faintest traces remain” (Pascal 76).  And yet the residue of this happiness, the remnant of Eden lingers in our heart crying out for restoration.  The redemptive aspects in our cherished books whisper to us: “This is the life you were made for”.  After all, what is a story except a creative re-telling of the deepest longings of our heart?

We have this constant itch for our lives to resemble the stories in which we found the beauty.  We resonate with the characters we read about at such a deep level and dream about living more extravagant lives marked by the sort of beauty that encapsulates their lives.  Lewis continues: “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves” (Lewis 3).  The beauty we desire is ultimately a longing for Eden; how God originally intended things.  The beauty within this beauty is that through the cross, God has created a way back to Eden, through Christ.  The nostalgic longing for a pre-fallen, Edenic state we have never known groans within us, anticipating its final redemption (Romans 8:23).  The best news is that through Christ we can pass into this beauty now and it will reach its culmination in heaven.

Speaking of the nations, the Apostle Paul says that God “never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness” (Acts 14:17).  I believe that our incessant craving for our favorite stories to be true and our thirst to be caught up in them live on as evidence of the divine story at work within us, bidding us “to come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind” (Psalm 66:5).  But if we trust ourselves to these damaged copies of the real thing, we will end up creating idols that will, as Lewis said, “break the hearts of their worshippers” because these good images are only clues to the real life waiting for us.  And if the beauty of these copies are able to move us so deeply and stir in us such overwhelming passions, what glory must be lying in wait, so eager to reveal itself that we can’t help but catch glimpses and rays of it that shine through the pages of our most treasured stories.

So, what is the “thing itself” as Lewis describes it?  What is it that we really desire? Author, Sally Lloyd-Jones puts a face to the Jesus story: The thing itself is “an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure.  It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful fairy tale that has come true in real life!  You see, the best thing about this Story is – it’s true” (Lloyd-Jones 17).

What we really desire is to be caught up in something beyond us, to live for something greater.  What we really desire is a life free of pain, death, and disappointments, a life full of passion and love.  But above all we just want to be free.  Isn’t that what draws us so strongly towards the heroes of our stories?  Their fight for freedom; from the enemy, their family, their circumstances, and even themselves.  Their refusal to settle with anything less than freedom for those they love.  “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1) and it was his love that compelled Him to set out on his rescue mission to free us.

The genuine beauty of this true story is that because of Christ’s rescue mission to earth, we have been brought into something so beyond us that it can only be described as another kingdom.  We have been brought into Jesus’ mission in testifying to the saving work of the cross.  He has decided to use us to share a message with others that will eternally change their lives.  He has given us authority and powers over the darkness.  Then, at the end of the age, when Christ returns, He will take with him his bride who has been preparing herself for her groom through her acts of service and love, to a place that He has been preparing for her.  He will conquer and vanquish the evil one, along with all sin and death.  Then, at last, all of our longings will be satisfied; every wrong made right, justice served, and we will be free at last.  Perhaps reality is even better than the fiction that we wish was true:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:20-26)

This is truly the “thing itself”.  This is the beauty and promise of which all other stories hinted at and whispered about.  Those books you so adore and those stories that never fail to move your spirit are windows into eternity.  They are meant to stimulate your affections, but you mustn’t “mistake them for the thing itself;” rather let them draw you to Jesus and expand your view of the gospel story and the lengths that he went to rescue you; His beloved, His son, His daughter, His blood-bought bride.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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