This past week I was in the mountains of Colorado...BACKPACKING.
If you know me this might be a shock, but I had the time of my life! I really felt closer to God as I was surrounded by his amazing creation, standing on mountains, in valleys, and crossing rivers with near strangers. It was one of the most incredible things I've done, and I highly recommend it!
However, I do not have enough time right now to give all the details of this adventure, so I'll be telling you about something that brought be incredible personal happiness in stead.
After the backpacking portion of my trip, we stayed in a camp-type area with a little gift shop and snack bar. Some of us wanted t-shirts, so we all migrated up to the little log cabin where I saw a particular book on the shelf. I picked it up and was surprised as people around me began their five minute mini-sermon on why it was one of the best books they've read. It was by C. S. Lewis, so I wasn't too surprised by its high recommendation, but the magnitude of reviews I received was still strange, so I wrote the name Until We Have Faces down on my arm and went on about my business. I completely let the book fall to the back of my mind when I arrived home and realized that my phone had been left in Colorado.
About a week after my return, my phone had been located, but was still in the process of being shipped back to me, and I had made plans to meet friends at the mall. Of course I was phoneless, but everyone was getting together for a Christian form of "Woman Crush Wednesday" where we ate good food and invested into the younger girls. I met with some church friends a couple days before and they told me that the lunch was still on, so I arrived at the mall that Wednesday afternoon.
When I got there I desperately needed to use the bathroom and knew where only one was located, so I parked in the only parking lot I ever use—the one directly in front of Barns & Noble. After I entered the bookstore and found myself on my way out, I had a burning need to at least look around, so I found myself in the stacks looking for this particular book. I finally found it and took off to find my group of friends. I took a lap of the entire mall in about fifteen minutes—if that gives you any idea of the size of my town—and headed home. My friends told me later that they had texted me that our meeting was moved to the church. I was kinda bummed, but also excited for the new book. I sat down and started reading.
As I kept reading I found the story was vaguely familiar, and as I kept reading the familiarity grew and grew until I couldn't ignore the feeling and finally flipped the book over to read the synopsis. It was a retelling of my all-time favorite fairytale by none other than C. S. Lewis himself!! I was so excited that I've actually been saving the book for a quieter time when I can fully bask in the full glory of my favorite fairytale dressed up in the beautiful language and writing of C. S. Lewis.
This may have interested no one but me, but I can't believe it! What are the odds of this random story everyone was telling me about to be the story of Cupid and Psyche by one of my favorite authors! It's almost too good to be true:)
