There is a scene in C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce that is quite compelling and thought provoking. The Great Divorce is a novel about a man who takes an offered train ride from Hell (the Grey Town) to the outskirts of Heaven. The train departs at regular intervals and anyone can board and travel to just outside the gates of Heaven, if they so wish.
While people seem to be curious about how Heaven might be different from The Grey Town of Hell, they refuse to believe that life would be any better for them in Heaven. For one thing, even though they are in the shadow of Heaven and not actually inside its boundaries, they are unable to experience even the simplest of blessings Heaven might offer.
As they experience a Created Order without sin, they discover that they cannot interact with that world. The people from Grey Town appear as transparent shadows outside the walls of Heaven. They shuffle slowly and painfully through grass, that while greener then any green seen by them before, has the consistency of unbreakable glass that is painful to their feet.
Amazingly, people in Heaven that the people of Grey Town knew in the previous life come out of Heaven and seek to interact with them. Husbands, wives, children, neighbors, friends seek to convince the folks of Grey Town, who were once loved ones, that life in Heaven is so much more rich than anything they could imagine to exist. They offer to take the people of Grey Town to Jesus so that they can join them in Heaven. (I know there is a theological challenge to this part of the story — but it’s a novel)
But no matter how much the people of Heaven try to reason and plead with the people from Grey Town — no one is interested in making the change to Heaven. They refuse to believe what they consider to be illusion, and would rather settle for the drab, meaningless existence they experience in Grey Town.
The story’s intent is to use the idea of Grey Town (Hell) to portray people today who think that life in this broken world is the best reality that there is. Living for today and whatever personal satisfaction one can achieve is the ultimate success that one will ever know. They refuse to consider that there possibly is a better option. Throughout the story, the citizens of Heaven react in dismay that the residents of Grey Town refuse to accept a better life.
I am pondering the sad reality that many people will ultimately experience Grey Town for eternity. Most of them will never even seriously consider the teachings of Christianity — like the people of Grey Town — they are completely indifferent — and just continue with the reality they experience in this life.
Today, as we consider God the Creator in our service, have you ever considered how wonderful the New Heaven and the New Earth will be as a new created order that will have NEVER experienced sin. What is the most beautiful place you have seen in our world? Wherever that place is — it is a place that has been exposed to sin for thousands of years. Paul tells us that creation groans under the curse of sin… but not the New Heaven and the New Earth! Jesus said of them: “Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 22:5 A new, beautiful, sin-free world for those who believe, where we will be present with the Lord Jesus — forever.
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