C.S. Lewis

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow

When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,

And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart

Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.

Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme

Worshipping with frail images a folk-lore dream,

And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address

The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless

Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert

Our arrows, aimed unskilfully, beyond desert;

And all men are idolators, crying unheard

To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great

Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.

C.S. Lewis

I am taking Theology this semester and this was the first thing we looked at in class. Our professor, Roy Berkenbosch, put this up on the overhead and gave us a couple minutes to talk amongst ourselves about it. I don't know about you, but when I read this initially it all flew over my head. When we started discussing it, however, I really began appreciating it. I'll try and be concise.

If you read this... I guess I would call it a prayer or a reflection of some sort... anyways, if you read it... I don't know. I found it rather powerful. I'll just share what I found most impacting.

Our concept of who God is is less than who the true God is. The opening line shows that only God knows who He really is. God is far greater than we could ever imagine and our words are unworthy of who He is. We cannot be literal because he is so much greater than anything we can say and his majesty surpasses words that we may use to describe it - our words are insufficient and inadequate. Our arrows are aimed unskillfully and they miss the target. If our words are taken at face value then we are blaspheming God and reducing him to something far less than He actually is.

I don't know... there is so much I could say and that I want to say, but I'm not very good at articulating my thoughts and I'm afraid I will just lose you so you can just read that for yourself and I'd encourage you to reflect on it. It's a good piece of literature.