Joy to the world

‘Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.’

‘All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still “about to be.”’

 –C.S. Lewis

There is something in the way C S Lewis describes ‘joy’ that resonates with me. I have never been entirely sure that I would call that which he describes ‘joy’. But I most certainly identify with that sense of longing, the pang of which he speaks, ‘a desire for something longer ago or further away or still about to be’. Oh yes, I know that.

I felt it yesterday as I drove through an area of frost covered trees, their delicate branches stiff and glistening in the low winter sun. As I gazed on the scene I felt that pang...almost like something vaguely remembered, or just out of reach, or deeply desired.

I suspect that most people feel that way at times. I think it is part of what all these Christmas TV adverts are attempting to evoke, whether by stirring up some nostalgic longing, or presenting an idealised picture of celebrations or family, or inviting us to enter into some imagined ‘perfect’ future.

These advertisers know what they are doing. They are connecting with that deep longing and yearning in us all for something almost remembered or hopefully reached for. And if I understand the point that C S Lewis was trying to make about he called ‘joy’, this universal pang of yearning within us, points towards something bigger and ‘other’ which is the true object of our yearning.

The season of Advent connects with this sense within us all. 

We recall the generations of waiting and watching, yearning and praying by God’s people for the Day of the Lord to come. It is of this that the prophets wrote. And we enter into that yearning and longing for the fullness of God’s rule to be established, when justice and peace and healing will finally prevail.

And in the midst of the personal difficulties and uncertainties with which we as a family have been wrestling these last few months, that yearning has ‘ached’ within me. Of course, it has had a very specific and personal focus with regard to comfort, resolution, direction, provision etc all related to our particular circumstances. But I sense also that there has been more; that this personal and specific yearning has connected with a deep and more persistent yearning within for the fullness of God, for God’s rule to be established, for the healing of the nations, for the final redemption of the world, for... well, for what? In the words of C S Lewis ‘for something longer ago or further away or still “about to be”’.

Of all human desires would this alone remain without the possibility of fulfilment? May not the very existence of this longing confirm to us that our hope is in something greater, deeper and yet to be?