THE REAL THING

"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. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage..."

— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

ROOT BELOW, FRUIT ABOVE

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

— Matthew 13:18-23

GROWTH, BY NATURE

“The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.

…but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward. Just in proportion as the desire grows, our fear lest it should be a mercenary desire will die away and finally be recognised as an absurdity. But probably this will not, for most of us, happen in a day; poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship.”

— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (p. 27-28)

SWEET HOME PHILADELPHIA

On our drive towards the heart of Philadelphia to attend the newly married couple’s wedding reception.

The roads may have been icy but it was one of the ‘warmest’ days all year.

“There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

— Albert Einstein

WEDDING IN NARNIA

Donny & Angela Cho, married 02.06.10 at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, PA

“And we, who with unveiled faces

all reflect the Lord’s glory,

are being transformed into his likeness

with ever-increasing glory,

which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

— 2 Corinthians 3:18