Lewis wrote about this longing that all men seem to have for something other and greater than what we know. Using an argument similar to the ontological arguments of Anselm and writings of Thomas Aquinas, C. S. Lewis argued that since we have a longing, there must exist an object that satisfies it. He writes "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. . . 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. "
Yet he goes even further than this by explicitly suggesting that although the fulfilment of this longing will occur some day and be very satisfying, just the longing for such a fulfillment gives us more joy than the consummation of any longing that we can satisfy on our own. There is not just a deeper level of satisfaction but a complete paradigm shift to how real satisfaction is obtained.
It is like the mists on a wind. It can be right in front of us, but the moment we reach out to grasp it, it slips right through our fingers. The more we chase the mists, repeatedly and desperately clutching for them, the more likely we are to trip over somethings as we run, or even fall into a dark pool that we may not be able get out of. We might therfore hope that one day we will have hands that can grab that elusive "mist" and hold it like a precious thing in our hands.
One of my all time favourite books is a fiction by Lewis titled "The Great Divorce" in which he investigates allegorically the concept of people moving inexorably towards one direction or another. It is a dichotomy of spiritual choice. We either are living with the purpose of incrementally becoming better people, or through our resistance to authority, and unwillingness to let go of our foolishness, we are gradually sliding into a pit from which we will never return.
The most striking imagery that occurs in this book is the difference between things of substance, and those without. When our main character visits the edge of a place of real susbtance, he finds that he himself is not really a man of susbtance, and it is only in the light of comparison that it has become so clear. His body seems almost transparent compared to the richness and vividness of his surroundings, and he is so insubstantial that even the blades of grass wont bend underfoot. Lewis alludes to a reality of infinitely higher greatness and worth than the world of mere material importance. In this reality, if we are a person that is moving down the better path, then we will somehow achieve real substance, and those blades will bend underfoot, and our appearance will be more solid, and maybe we will be able to reach out and grab those misty treasures that currently elude us.
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