Sarah Smith of Golders Green

the literary character that has haunted me for months

When I first read The Great Divorce by CS Lewis about ten years ago, I really didn't know what I was reading, but I knew that it was good. Not just in a literary sense but Goodness in all of its shining form.

I read it again last year, and with more of Lewis' books under my belt and much more knowledge about the books and authors who made him, I was able to understand it a few steps further than my first read.

In this book, the narrator who has been living in Hell has been given (along with others) a trip to Heaven. There are many wonders to be found and many ideals to be shaken for these first time visitors. As each chapter unfolds, we get to experience how different characters ultimately either reject or rejoice in Heaven. Before reading, it seems as if everyone having visiting Heaven should have no problem choosing it over Hell; but in true Lewis fashion, the psychology is piercing; drawing the fine line between pride and humility.

During this reread I happened upon a character whose Beauty has haunted me ever since. Her name is Sarah Smith of Golders Green:

"All down one long aisle of the forest the under-sides of the leafy branches had begun to tremble with dancing light...Some kind of procession was approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it...Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon one hand, and girls upon the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that score would ever grow sick or old. Between them went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done.

I cannot now remember whether she was naked or clothed. If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass. If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to the clarity with which her innermost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country [Heaven] are not a disguise: the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living organs. A robe or a crown is there as much one of the wearer's features as a lip or an eye.

But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable beauty of her face.

...[The Narrator's Heavenly Guide:] "It's someone ye'll never have heard of. Her name on Earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green."

What made her so beautiful? What made her so beloved that a procession of youth would sing in her honor, announcing her arrival for all to take part? From the above passage, we know that her spiritual form, her soul has weaved a body of resplendent light-almost unbearable for one to behold.

We come to find that the youth in her procession are all her sons and daughters from Earth; for every young person she came in contact with became her own. That her love was neither jealous nor demanding, but that after receiving it, each person in contact with her would return home inspired to love their family all the more. We learn that "Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them."

" 'Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.'" -the heavenly tour guide

I believe the reason why she keeps echoing through my mind is because she is an example of a Daughter who boldly claimed her Heavenly inheritance while she was still on Earth and the reader gets to see her fully embody such grace in Heaven. That's just not something you typically come across in literature and it's a picture that flashes across my mind often as I'm auditing my life.

While we don't get to see Sarah's day to day life or any of the struggles or decisions she had to make while on Earth, I've had to guess what it all equates to practically through trial and error of my own.

Sarah probably lived a simple life. For her to be so generous and charitable consistently, she would have to of had an immense amount of inner peace. And I don't think it's because she created boundaries protecting herself from everything that stressed her out (because we know she was ever present with people and that's about as messy as one can get). She would have had to be intentional to guard that peace, allowing the Holy Spirit to examine and expose every inch of her heart, leaving no call to obedience left unanswered.

Sarah was an open and surrendered vessel for Love Divine. She was able to comprehend the life force, the healing power that she embodied and knew that all else paled in comparison to this. This would mean that she only pursued what was essential to receiving that Love and nourishing others with it. She fed upon the Bread of Life, celebrated it, and shared it with others. She knew unflinchingly that was her purpose, therefore, she didn't need any of the extra knick knacks (or paddy wacks). Until we have learned and lived this concept, the actuality of a "simple life" will always be out of reach and with God, we will be out of touch.

"There is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life."