Heaven

The symbols under which Heaven is presented to us are (a) a dinner party, (b) a wedding, (c) a city, and (d) a concert. It would be grotesque to suppose that the guests or citizens or members of the choir didn’t know one another. And how can love of one another be commanded in this life if it is to be cut short at death?

Think of yourself just as a seed patiently waiting in the earth: waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time, up into the real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back on from there, will seem only a drowsy half- waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

The true Host

He has, you see, been willing to take me on as God takes me -- as a risk.  He pays me the supreme tribute of putting himself in my power.  The giver of a cocktail party is a man who hedges his bets and cops out of the dangers of entertaining.  He requires nothing of his guests but their physical presence.  If they turn out to be untempered duds or ill-tempered boors, it is no skin off his nose: They can simply find their own corner of outer darkness and fall apart any way they like.  But when he sits me down at his table, he declares himself willing to let me into his own life.  He puts me into my place; but he also puts me in a position to make or break his party as I will.  It is no small boldness; if you have such friends, treasure them.

Robert Farrar CaponThe Supper of the Lamb