This is a translation of a scriptural meditation from the Russian book, “Day by Day”. Lewis connection follows:
"Scripture: "Priests…who serve an image and shadow of what is in heaven…see to it that you make everything according to the image shown you on the mountain” (Hebrews 8:4-5)
"Meditation:
"Our picture of those who died is often unclear and hazy, belonging to an unreal world of mists. St. Paul has a totally different view: for him the spiritual world has a more vibrant reality than the material one. He sees earthly life as a dream of heavenly visions.
"We sometimes ask if we will have memories of our earthly existence in the next life. But everything created on earth is but an “image and shadow” and was created as an “image shown on the mountain”. Oh, my Lord, what joy there is in this revelation! When we are afraid of the unknowns of the future life, when we are sad that we will not bring anything with us to the grave, let us remember how much the Lord brought from heaven to our sinful world, and how bountiful are the wonders of nature that he gave us! The beginning and foundation of everything that makes up the reality of the visible world has been laid in eternity. Everything we see comes from the invisible world. All the best things in us point to the divine nature of all creation, to the divine ember in every heart.
"The Lord Himself is the source of everything beautiful and elevated on earth. Our earthly attachments, the sacred ties of family, the most noble and purest of human impulses, are only a pale reflection of the love which surpasses reason, the infinite divine love which gave the Only-Begotten Son for the redemption of mankind.
“So, our true home is not on earth, but in heaven. Here we are wanderers in a foreign land; there, we go home, to rest after a long journey. And there we will learn the essence and meaning of that which here was just a foreshadowing.”
And Lewis writes the following in the last letter of “Letters to Malcolm”:
“the hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as a substitute is to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or a diamond to the coal.”
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)