Serious economic activity indicators are all around us, and earnest disciplined parents drive their children to succeed.
When such is the case, it is easy to feel that life is about working hard and forget the adage that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. I came across this quotation from C.S. Lewis recently: ‘It is only in our “hours-off”, only in our moments of permitted festivity, that we find an analogy. Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for “down here” is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we are placed here to live. But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of heaven’.
Melody of grace
How our earnest world needs to hear that! Perhaps, in addition, not only is ‘play’ the ‘serious business of heaven’ but it is also the melody of grace, the tune in the background to which we are to listen to all the graceful words of the gospel.
