Humanity

I'm listening to a series of lectures by Louis Markos (University of Michigan) about C.S. Lewis. Very interesting stuff!  The lecture about The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce started me thinking about what I'm writing about in this post.

Have you ever heard (or ever said), when confronted with sin, "He's only human"? Or "I'm only human"? Dr. Markos put a spin on that for me in this lecture.  

In heaven, we reach the culmination of our humanity.  In heaven, our humanity - our identity - our personality - are not lost. They are transformed into what they were intended to be when we were created. 

When we choose to sin, each time, we lose a little piece of our humanity. We move farther and farther away from what we were intended to be - what we were created to be.

So blaming our sin on our humanity is the opposite of what God intended. Our humanity is what we were meant to become, and our sin decreases it.

I like the metaphor that Markos describes from Lewis' writing.  Heaven is huge - full of potential and fulfillment. Hell is tiny, shriveled and small. He said, "If a bird in heaven were to eat hell, he would hardly even notice it."