Till We Have Faces

Book Review!

I have been longing to read more and more "classics" by Christian giants in the literary world. The novel, "Till We Have Faces" is believed to be C.S. Lewis's favorite work. That must be saying something! I believe he started it prior to his conversion, so perhaps it is his work that shows the grace and majesty of God the best??

I will say this: it isn't an easy read. The words and story line are not that difficult, but trying to understand all of the allegory is a bit daunting. I always feel like with Lewis I am sometimes just skimming the surface of what he is trying to convey. But, even if I only get a little of what he is trying to get across, it always blesses me indescribably.

I won't get into the story line that much, but basically, a princess loses her sister to a death that appears to be meaningless. (I know, sniff, sniff.) The princess later finds her sister alive and more joyous than ever, but unable to come back "home", for she truly is at her home now. The princess becomes angry and full of bitterness and believes that if her sister loved her at all, she would return with her.

Long story short, which by the way, is mirrored after a Greek myth, the princess becomes queen and decides to wear a veil the rest of her days, after all, she was the ugly sister. After a life of using others and loving no one well, she writes a book against the gods. The book is her complaint.

"Till We Have Faces" is amazing on many levels, but the last few pages really did my heart good. She presents her complaint and the gods hear her. At this point, she was at the end of herself, and was finally able to hear what they had to say. While uttering her complaint (she is actually reading her book over and over to them,) the judge tells her to stop reading. For her whole bitter life, she had wondered "why." Now, in the presence of the gods, it was irrelevant. She replies, "I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face, questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words."

The whole premise behind the title of the book is that until we can meet face to face with God, not much will make sense on this earth. We walk around veiled and often bitter and unhappy. We see through a glass darkly now, but one day, we will see clearly. The great I AM is always the answer. The person of God is always more than sufficient than any question we can bring to him.