Heavenly Pain

Today in class we brought up discussions of the pain felt by the Ghosts on their "visit". This led me to thinking more about the very nature of their "heavenly excursion." It's not only the herd of unicorns or the wandering lions, but the entire visit is rife with pain. The Ghosts' existence on this visit is entirely insubstantial--they are incomplete, less real than the Solid People of the realm, the Spirits. Because of this lack of substance, these Ghosts are succeptible to the elements of the realm--the grass beneath their feet is like diamond, the water like moving steel, and if rain were to fall it'd be like "machine-gun bullet" fire. I think these dangers are paled in comparison to the incompleteness of these Ghosts. To be in this heavenly realm and yet be unable to truly be a part of it yet...that's like dying of thirst and being locked out of an oasis is it not? Another essential of this painful heaven pointed out in class is that these Ghosts meet with a Spirit that seems to challenge or bring out an article of their past which is quite painful in itself, but also conjures up greater pain. Is Lewis trying to stress the conversion/acceptance of faith, or the "journey beyond the mountains" is painful and leads to further pain?

Scripture doesn't tell us that the Way will be easy or painless, quite the opposite in fact. Yet we do have triumph in the end and our "suffering" produces eventual "hope" that "does not dissapoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:3, 5)

Another essence of this incompleteness I wish to look at lays outside heaven, but our very relation to God. When we are without Christ, we are incomplete, insubstantial. Yet when we belong to Christ, we are complete in His Love and Grace. When we trust in Him, we are being shaped into the people God has made us to be. "Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains" (70-71). Without God, we can be shaken and broken and reduced to nothingness. Yet when we give ourselves to Him, we belong to that great unshakeable Reality. "The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word last forevers." Is Lewis trying to stress the joy of living for the Rock? Is this emphasis of incompleteness trying to stress what is left to us without Christ in our lives?

I don't really know what I think of heaven, but I know it's something I don't have to worry about. My trust in God Almighty is enough, my faith in Jesus Christ promises me eternal life. What is eternal life? I believe it's simply being with God forever. To live in the presence of the Eternal Rock for the rest of time, till time itself fades away. So when I die and all the things of this world fade away and "all that can be shaken will be shaken", I will still have the "unshakeable"--I will still have the Love of Jesus Christ.