This past week we finished up Miracles, and the point of a lot of our discussion revolved around Lewis’ idea of nature and reality.  He refutes the idea that heaven is less real than our current state—some people have a false image of heaven as this misty, empty state which Lewis calls “negative spirituality”.  However, he claims that heaven is even more real than our world now; spirituality is more real than nature.  Our experiences now only reflect the ultimate reality, and in comparison we are just a metaphor of the divine.

        It goes back to the symbolism Lewis illustrated in The Great Divorce.  Those who came unto God, “Spirits”, became glowing, solid creatures with a whole new level of physical reality, while those unwilling to submit were stuck as “Ghosts”, miniscule and unsubstantive compared to the Spirits, almost empty. This was a physical symbol of a divine truth—we will become something through Christ, and we are nothing on our own.  We gain glory and light when we submit our will unto God, and we become real beings.  Now, we are like two-dimensional figures—we know some reality but there are entirely more substantive aspects of reality that we can’t begin to perceive or comprehend right now.

        However, that is not saying that we are nothing, or that our reality now is meaningless.  Lewis asserts that nature contains smaller versions of eternal patterns.  Eventually, nature and spirituality will be “fully harmonized”, and “every state of affairs in the new nature will be the perfect expression of a spiritual state.”  Through Christ, we will become fully real, and enjoy the real, substantial joy that God has prepared for us.