A Place for Renewal
The Kilns - home of C.S. Lewis
We all seem to have places that we love, places that call to us and renew us. For some people, the beach brings calm and comfort. Mountains speak to other people. Often our special place is connected to pleasant memories.
C.S. Lewis’s home from 1930 until his death, The Kilns, had an eight-acre garden with privacy, woods, a cliff, and a small lake, which he described as “such stuff as dreams are made of.” Before he inherited the money that allowed him to buy The Kilns, he was often seen on the tree-lined Addison’s Walk, Oxford, during his years at Magdalen College. Both Addison’s Walk and The Kilns offered refuge and quiet sanctuary for Lewis.
Madeleine L’Engle, the author of “A Wrinkle in Time” series and many other children’s books, novels, poetry, essays, and memoirs, described her special place as a small brook in a green glade, a “circle of quiet” near Crosswicks, the big, old-fashioned New England farmhouse where she and her family lived. She would go to the glade when she needed a break from her children, household duties, or when she needed to pray or think about what she was writing. Years later, when she and her husband had sold Crosswicks, her special place was at a particular table in the library of the New York cathedral where she worshiped.
Even Jesus often went to quiet places, places apart from the crowds who followed him. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him in the boat while he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. (Matthew 14: 22-23 and Mark 6:45-46) Another time, Jesus left the house where he was staying and “went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35) When Judas betrayed Jesus, he led the guards to the olive grove where it was known that Jesus often went with his disciples. (John 18:2)
When we are in a quiet, beautiful place, we are often aware of God’s creation: sky, sun, trees, a creek, river, pond, or lake; grass, flowers, birds, and animals. God delights in his creation, and Psalm 104 gloriously describes his interaction with creation and the benefit it brings to people:
He wraps himself with light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind. (vv 2-3)
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart. (vv 14-15)
How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. (v 24)
In addition, we are told in Romans that God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - can be clearly seen since the beginning of time in the world God has created. (Romans 1:20)
Many people do not have the means or opportunity to own places like The Kilns or Crosswicks. The Abide Project hopes with God’s provision to provide a special place like Addison’s Walk, the cathedral library, or the olive grove used by Jesus and his disciples, places where anyone may come and spend time thinking, praying, walking, reflecting, or enjoying God’s creation. This nature “sanctuary” will be open not only to Church of the Lamb members but also to people from the local community.
