This is a translation of a scriptural meditation from the Russian book, “Day by Day”. Lewis connection follows:
"Scripture: ‘The greatest of these is love’ (1 Cor: 13, 13)
"Meditation:
"When love dwells in the heart, the heart is full of joy. Love illuminates all of God’s creation with a joyful smile. Looking closer into our soul, we will become convinced that every day we have lived has left us debtors – debtors of love and affection for our neighbors. We don’t give them what they deserve, and never fully give them what we should have given.
"To love does not mean only not to do evil, but to do all the good to others that is within our power.
"Love for God always instills in us a readiness to humbly do His will, no matter what it may be. Love for others motivates us to constantly serve and help them. Love constantly builds up. Every time we touch a person’s life, love enriches that life in some way and gives it great value in its own eyes. A person feels that life is worth living when he encounters love in relationships with people.
“A word of love is a blessing, it inspires and elevates the soul. Coming from God, love creates goodness unceasingly and serves as a revelation of God Himself. Love descends to the earth as an Angel of God and as an Angel of peace and joy. It resounds in our life like a heavenly song, and sows good seeds everywhere, which will sprout in eternity. “God is love” (1 John: 4, 8), love cannot but give itself in total selflessness in service to others. Every one of us, even those who have nothing, can love and spread this love around us. The source of love must be like a spring which flows inexorably from our heart, finding application everywhere in deeds of love.”
I guess the most immediate connection from Lewis’s works is Aslan’s sacrifice of himself in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John:15, 13). And, from a different perspective, Lewis writes the following in the chapter on “Charity” in The Four Loves:
“Divine Gift-love–Love Himself working in a man–is wholly disinterested and desires what is simply best for the beloved… natural Gift-love is always directed to objects which the lover finds in some way intrinsically lovable–objects to which Affection or Eros or a shared point of view attracts him, or, failing that, to the grateful and the deserving, or perhaps to those whose helplessness is of a winning and appealing kind. But Divine Gift-love in the man enables him to love what is not naturally lovable: lepers, criminals, enemies, morons, the sulky, the superior and the sneering. Finally, by a high paradox, God enables men to have a Gift-love towards Himself. There is of course a sense in which no one can give to God anything which is not already His; and if it is already His, what have you given? But since it is only too obvious that we can withhold ourselves, our wills and hearts, from God, we can, in that sense, also give them. What is His by right and would not exist for a moment if it ceased to be His (as the song is the singer’s), He has nevertheless made ours in such a way that we can freely offer it back to Him. “Our wills are ours to make them Thine.” And as all Christians know there is another way of giving to God; every stranger whom we feed or clothe is Christ. And this apparently is Gift-love to God whether we know it or not. Love Himself can work in those who know nothing of Him. The “sheep” in the parable had no idea either of the God hidden in the prisoner whom they visited or of the God hidden in themselves when they made the visit.”
Dimitry
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)