I walked out in my backyard this morning and heard a
sound that resembled frogs croaking; only it was coming from the sky! I
realized that it was that time of year again. It was the sound of migrating
sand hill cranes flying south from their home in Iowa. They are a majestic
sight, flying in an ever-changing "V" formation as the lead changes
hands the leader tires and another takes its place. They break ranks and circle
until the formation readjusted itself then they are on the move southward once again.
It is amazing to me how year after year they find
their way to their wintering grounds. What internal mechanism steers them on
their way? Is it smell, or the earth's magnetic field? That instinct drives
them onward as a sort of longing for their winter home.
C.S. Lewis expresses our innate longing for our
Heavenly Home in Chapter Ten of "Mere Christianity" this way in the
following three points below:
"The nature of life is that things seldom, even
at their best, seem to turn out as well as we might have hoped for. How can we respond?
(1) The Fool’s Way- Put the blame on the things
themselves.
He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried
another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, then,
this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after.
Most of the bored, discontented, rich people in the world are of this type.
They spend their whole lives trotting from woman to woman (through the divorce
courts), from continent to continent, from hobby to hobby, always thinking that
the latest is “the Real Thing” at last, and always disappointed.
(2) The Way of the Disillusioned “Sensible
Man.” - Decide that the whole thing is moonshine.
“Of course,” he says, “one feels like that when one’s
young. But by the time you get to my age you’ve given up chasing the rainbow’s
end.” And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses
the part of himself which used, as he would say, “to cry for the moon.” This
is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier,
and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be
rather superior towards what he calls “adolescents”), but, on the whole, he
rubs along fairly comfortably. It would be the best line we could take if man
did not live for ever. But supposing infinite happiness really is there,
waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow’s end? In that case
it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our
supposed “common sense” we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying
it."
Let me interject here, Peggy Lee's 1969 hit song of
existential angst, "Is That All There Is?" that captures this
disillusionment. Here are the lyrics:
"I remember when I was a very
little girl, our house caught on fire.
I'll never forget the look on my
father's face as he gathered me up
in his arms and raced through the
burning building out to the pavement.
I stood there shivering in my pajamas
and watched the whole world go up in flames.
And when it was all over I said to
myself, "Is that all there is to a fire?"
CHORUS:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If
that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's
break out the booze and have a ball
If
that's all there is
And when I was 12 years old, my father
took me to the circus, the greatest show on earth.
There were clowns and elephants and
dancing bears
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew
high above our heads.
And as I sat there watching the
marvelous spectacle
I had the feeling that something was
missing.
I don't know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself, "Is that all
there is to a circus?"
CHORUS
Then I fell in love, with the most
wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river or
just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day, he went away. And I
thought I'd die -- but I didn't.
And when I didn't I said to myself,
"Is that all there is to love?"
Is
that all there is, is that all there is
If
that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing
I know what you must be saying to
yourselves.
If
that's the way she feels about it why doesn't she just end it all?
Oh,
no. Not me. I'm in no hurry for that FINAL DISAPPOINTMENTt.
For I know just as well as I'm standing
here talking to you,
when that final moment comes and I'm
breathing my last breath, I'll be saying to myself,
CHORUS
(3.) The Christian Way says, “Creatures are not
born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.” A baby feels hunger well, there is such a
thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water.
Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself
a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly
pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.
Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse
it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one
hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on
the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only
a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for
my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it
get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to
press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”
What is your response to that longing? Will you choose
The Fool's Way, the Sensible Man's Way or the Christian Way?