C. S. Lewis’s letters to his American correspondents cover the gamut of topics. Sometimes, he goes into deeply Biblical issues, offering advice from his well of knowledge. Other times, he is more whimsical, but also with an air of wisdom that is hard to miss.
To one of his regular correspondents going through some physical trials, he ruminates on the process of getting older. Maybe I’m drawn to this because of my own advancing years, but, for whatever reason, I think his insights are worth sharing today.
Here’s what he had to say (cobbled together from two separate letters):
I also have been in the hands of the dentist but much less unpleasantly than you: I know a “dry socket” after an extraction can be the very devil and all. We must both, I’m afraid, recognise that, as we grow older, we become like old cars: more and more repairs and replacements are necessary. We must just look forward to the fine new machines (latest Resurrection model) which are waiting for us, we hope, in the Divine garage! . . .
I suppose living from day to day (“take no thought for the morrow”) is precisely what we have to learn: though the Old Adam in me sometimes murmurs that if God wanted me to live like the lilies of the field, I wonder He didn’t give me the same lack of nerves and imagination as they enjoy! Or is that just the point, the precise purpose of this Divine paradox and audacity called Man to do with a mind what other organisms do without it?
As for wrinkles: pshaw! Why shouldn’t we have wrinkles? Honorable insignia of long service in this warfare.
So don’t mind the increasing wrinkles–they speak of the long road one has traveled. If it is traveled well, those wrinkles are simply signs of having had the honor of serving the Lord for many years.
And keep looking forward to the Day when we lay aside this earthly frame and take up the latest Resurrection model to be found in the Divine Garage.
This world is passing; the New World awaits.