Human Amphibians and the Law of Undulation
I had actually intended to post about just the Law of Undulation today, as I have been listening to C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters over the last few days, and his concepts of the Law of Undulation and of humankind as a hybrid, amphibian creature subject to that law have been occupying my thoughts greatly.
But in looking for someplace online to which I could refer readers for the explanation of the Law of Undulation (scroll down to sections VIII and IX for the pertinent information), I came across this blog article, and felt strongly compelled to share it in addition to my own thoughts. (And please do read the info in the links, or you will totally not “get” what I’m going to say next.)
I am, in some degree, in a “trough period” right now. A questioning time. The reasons would fill a week’s worth of posts and are not worth going into here. Suffice it to say that I am struggling with “a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished” and I am “wondering why [I have] been forsaken.” Fortunately, God brought Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, and The Screwtape Letters back to my shelf (they’ve been lost in my Room of Doom for several months) just in time to remind me that I have been here before, that this is a temporary state of affairs, and that my assigned task, my orders, my “cross” is to simply obey.
And then came the blog article, which adds to the assurance that this is a short-term dry spell the certain knowledge of my worth and dignity as a human being. Ever looked in the mirror and wondered “God, why in the world did you ever bother creating me? What were You thinking?! I hope to goodness you threw that set of plans away, because the prototype sucks.”? Yeah.
Well, as Aslan says to Prince Caspian, “You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve … And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth. Be content.”
I have often read that passage in Prince Caspian and been comforted by it, though without clearly understanding why. So I am grateful to Sarah Arthur for putting into words what my spirit glimpsed and held to, though it could not articulate it.
“Painful” does not begin to describe my heritage, though I know for certain that my past is not half as horrific as that of some of my readers. And there have been many, many times over the past few weeks that I have wished most heartily that I could go back to the age of 12 and just redo the entirety of my adult life. Yes, I would even go through adolescence again, just to have the chance to undo some of the choices I have made.
But regardless of my past, I am a Daughter of Eve, created in the image of God and, through Christ, indwelt by the Creator and Ruler of all creation. My painful past is only a part of my heritage, and it has been covered by the Blood. Therefore, I, like Caspian, need to be content.
And, too, like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, I need to remember that no matter how disastrous a choice may seem, no matter how worthless my life may feel, I have impacted many for good. God may, or may not, choose to reveal those whom I have touched to me in this lifetime, but the fact that I don’t know about them doesn’t mean that the good contact didn’t happen. God probably keeps a lot of that sort of thing from me so I don’t get smug and proud and self-satisfied.
Anyway, so this little frog is crouched in a trough, hoping to stay more or less afloat until the Master comes and lifts me out again. I hope that my readers who have difficult pasts, or who find themselves in a low point, will find the words of CS Lewis and the explanations of Sarah Arthur as helpful and encouraging as I did.