It was way more than the story of C.S.Lewis and his wife that caught my heart in this book.  It was their shared conversion and making meaning of the world that spoke loudest to me.  I underlined only their thoughts concerning these deep subjects, which occured in between the happenings of the story line.  I found them to be as profound as C.S. Lewis himself, as of course many of his quotes were shared during the course of this story.  

As I wound these earnest thoughts of theirs together, italicizing the words that were theirs, I found a thread of more than just a love story with each other, I saw their love story totally crafted by their understanding of God.  

I have no more words to describe this work of art, a lifetime of discovering the depths of their faith, wound through pain and joy.  My words are simply used to tie theirs together which I offer now:

Becoming…His

-       A compilation of words (italicisized) and ideas taken from Becoming Mrs. Lewis by
by Patti Callahan, set in rhyme by Sherrill Schlimpert

There is a quest that calls me. 
A yearning for the unknown.
The unseen that betrays its presence
When I get quiet and alone.
 
It promises an unknotting,
Kind moments to ease the tension,
Private thoughts kept to myself
Too tender to be given mention.
 
How are we to make sense of it?
Caught in the mesh of wondering,
It’s a feeling we only acknowledge dimly
Though deep in the soul it’s thundering.
 
If we long for something more,
Then surely something more must exist.
And so, I seek with troubled heart
Peek through my mask and persist.
 
It was the aching and the emptiness
That through the years remained steady,
It was the longing that brought me to my knees,
I was finally ready…
 
To grasp for wisdom in this weary land,
To no longer shut my teeth upon my need,
It’s the Hound of Heaven who has been calling,
Yes, it’s He indeed.
 
Darkness, though, is part of the program,
We were promised nothing more.
But there is solace and nourishment along the way,
We must seek hard to be sure.
 
To find where the desire for meaning and truth
Surrenders the need and wants on this earth
To the idea of a place where the longing is fulfilled.
This, a pursuit of endlessly countless worth.
 
Sometimes all we hear is the command, “Follow me.”
Into a transformation toward a new self.
The fourth dimension of the one true myth we find in Jesus

The promise of this kingdom of wealth.
 
Then begins an unfolding into a new life
Which takes radical forgiveness and grace,
Sometimes costing the ache of stifling desires
A rejection of the enticements we face.
 
 In the mundane dayliness of survival
We give up our desires and wishes with rage.
That’s where we find when we give up ourselves,
We find our real self on stage.
 
God’s megaphone to reach us,
Shouts to us in our pain.
Hurts over time don’t melt easily.
Their unconscious urges continue to reign.
 
But when we walk in the beauty of nature
We can always find a revelation
The Love behind it, over it, and under,
Allows our thoughts a transformation.
 
We must abandon the belief that this is all there is
It’s our hearts we need to carry,
While we can be happy while wanting to go there,
On this journey we must not tarry.
  
We must see the divine in everything,
Always asking, “Create in me a new heart.”
For God demands your whole to fulfill

The longing we’ve had from the start.
 
We must learn to surrender our emotions,
Find a way not to indulge them.
Taking the wrecked parts in all of us
Healing the pain from which they stem.
 
With God as our primary relationship,
We can pour out our brokenness upon Him,
We can understand the larger truths
The only cost is to focus our weak attention.
 
We grasp at the world to fulfill us
But we must learn and relearn to trust the Truth,
We confuse our longing for something else
A default from early times even in youth.
 
We begin to live with acceptance,
“Thy will be done,” we can learn to say,
Still the hard parts are never easy,
We begin to accept with fury, “Fine, have it your way.”
 
It seems we search for happiness
Everywhere but God who holds all joy,
But in transcendence He is with us
If our prayers we still employ.
 
So we pray and walk in creation,
Where we listen for the whisper of something more,
Then we find that this long journey
Has brought us to what we’ve been yearning for. 
 
For like the mystical quality of nature
We revel in the unfolding of answered prayer
We must keep guard over our heart
And know He’ll put answers there.
 
For if we indulge our own desires,
We invite fog and confusion
We make up our own stories to make sense of the world
Grasping at the world’s delusion.
                             
For the world leads us to despair
The pursuit of people, success, acclaim,
The pain of our past proffers a neurosis
And we search the world in vain.
 
Sometimes we forget to turn to Him
But we must surrender again and again
Our conversion may not fix the things in life
But it can change us in the end.
 
For we forget we are all dying.
But beauty for ashes we will receive,
If we but surrender to our Master’s presence
And by His side pledge to never leave.