Two Poems for the Birthday of C.S. Lewis, by Warren Bonham

Feeble Best

We try to earn God’s love but can’t succeed.
When on His narrow path, we trip and fall.
How could we not? We’re merely noise and need.
Just shrieking infants, unaware we’re small.
To us, our shrieks sound like a symphony.
To Him, each one must sound cacophonous.
To us, our deeds are crowned with piety.
To Him, each one belies our sinfulness.
We miss His mark no matter what we try,
and often do what’s evil in His sight.
Somehow, although He’s hard to satisfy,
the Lord is also easy to delight.
Our puny actions can’t make Him impressed
but still, He’s pleased to get our feeble best.

Poet’s Note: Inspired by this C.S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity, “And yet—this is the other and equally important side of it—this Helper who will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection, will also be delighted with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest duty.”

Sunbeams

Dawn breaks with just a single beam of light
that’s followed by more beams that bring delight
to those who stop to contemplate the sky,
and not look down, or simply walk on by.

We can hear each bird’s song as more than sound,
and can see how majestically they’re crowned,
and can enjoy each morsel that we taste,
and can feel warmth each time that we’re embraced.

No matter the sensation, great or small,
we’ll be content when we embrace them all
by stopping for a moment to adore
the source of each, without expecting more.

These momentary coruscations of
the One who put each there to show his love,
are best appreciated when minds run
from where the sunbeam ends back to the sun.

Poet’s Note: Inspired by this C.S. Lewis quote from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer: “Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.”

Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.