4 imperfect analogies of 1 perfect love

I am currently reading CS Lewis’s book “The Problem of Pain” which is a beautiful and challenging read. Beautiful in that his reflections and writing are incredible. Challenging in that he is such a genius that I need to re-read entire sections a few times and then when I see the truth they reveal I have to stop and rethink again.

And I’m not even finished chapter two yet!!!!

Anyway, in chapter 2 he talks about the love the Father has for us. I’ll not copy huge sections of the book here, because what would be the point of that, but I thought it might be helpful to breakdown what I thought was a helpful and profound description of God’s love.

Lewis rightly states that the love God has for us cannot be compared with any type of relationship we could have with any other created being. The intimacy experienced between God and the ‘worst of all humans’ is still more than the best of relationships we could have with each other. It is without compare.

He then chooses 4 types of human love that help us to grasp elements of God’s love for us. Each of them, as we have already alluded to, are limited and even the combination of the best of all 4 would still fall short of the saviours love for us, but I found them so helpful and clarifying.

1 – The love an artist feels for their subject – this is an analogy we see used in the scripture by Jeremiah as he talks about the potter (God) and the clay (us). Lewis is clear that this analogy isn’t describing a quick doodle that we jot down where we are happy to live with the imperfections and problems in what we’ve created. Instead he calls us to imagine a life long piece of art that the artist is constantly changing, correcting, perfecting, and loving into its fullness. He describes how the drawing, sculpture etc. whilst of course not human might feel a little frustrated at the rubbing, chipping, and scraping but that all of this happens because of the deepest desire of the creator to see the subject become all that it was meant to be.

2 – The love between a human and their animal – again we hear the Scriptures talks about the relationship between the shepherd (God) and His sheep (us). Lewis describes this analogy as being helpful in describing the difference in the authority and understanding between both parties and unlike the subject in the previous analogy the animal actually has a will of its own. Think of a dog; whose habits, smells, and disobedient might frustrate us greatly (I have great experience of this) but yet our love for them covers over that. However, we will seek to train and change their behaviour most likely to the annoyance of the dog. Lewis states that the new puppy might even doubt whether we loved them at all in the middle of correction but overall the comfort, loyalty and interest we show in it ‘should’ overshadow those moments.

3 – The love between a parent and a child – this analogy runs all through the scriptures. It is most helpful in describing the authority and obedience of love. The parent is the authority figure and is loved by the child who seeks to obey the parent because of that love. The parent however is not a cold, distant authority but a close, loving one that loves the child with all that we can muster. It therefore differs in the relationship of human and animal and also in that the child comes from the parent and the parent seeks to see the child grow into a version of themselves.

4 – The love between a man and a woman – once again, an analogy scripture itself uses in many places often between God and Israel. Lewis describes this as the most dangerous analogy of all! Its best use is how it describes the relationship between grace and the ‘perfecting of the beloved.’ The point here is because we love each other deeply we will move past the imperfections that we notice in each other. However it would not be love at all if we didn’t care to see those imperfections perfected (as far as we can anyway). My wife loves me enough to accept me as I am, but she also loves me enough to not leave me where I am.

Just breathe and take those in.

Maybe re-read them again.

I hope you found these as helpful as me. It’s important to state again that each of these are not perfect, they are limited, and even the sum of them comes up short, but for me they have helped to highlight in a small way the scale and perfection of the perfect love the Father has for me.

Thank you Lord for your unconditional love.

And CS Lewis for your words that have helped to illuminate my understand of God’s love.