A Cup of Coffee with an Old Dead Guy

I sat down with C.S. Lewis today for some coffee. Surprisingly enough, dead English guys like their coffee with milk and crumpets. Who knew?

After a couple shots of espresso, I asked Lewis how he would explain God. He shot back, "I like to explain God the same way that I like to drink my coffee." He then chuckled to himself and I sat there waiting for the punch line. None came and I felt awkward so I got up and began to make my way for the door as I made up some lame excuse about having to get my tires rotated. He then assured me that he was going to be serious and that he was not going to tug my trousers any longer (I would go more into this but I really don't want to).

He then said something that opened up my view on God. He said, "God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of...drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance."

I told him that I didn't think that he was irreverent at all and asked him to continue.

"You see my boy, the union between the Father and Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person…What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God."

I then began to think to myself how I wished humanity could have this same kind of relationship with one another that God has within himself. I wish that we could love each other so perfectly that a spirit of love and community would cover us. Maybe then we would dance with God.

Before I could completely get my mind around this idea, Lewis opened up a little more. He said, "God does not exist for the sake of man. We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased’."

As he said these words, a gentle sense of comfort fell over me like a warm blanket on a cold day. God loves me and made me to be loved.

We didn't say much more after that. We just sat there basking in the love of God...while we enjoyed our coffee.