Joy's Own Surprise

I've posted a bit from Joy Davidman's letters (her autobiographical stuff) in comments at a couple of other blogs.  Figure we might as well read it here.  She's known by many as a wife, and famously as the wife of C.S. Lewis (the wife played by the wonderful Deborah Winger in the movie Shadowlands, in which she goes by Joy Gresham, the name of her first husband.).  Lewis entitled one of his autobiographies after Davidman, punning on her first name with Surprised by Joy.  In his story, Joy is also the mystery of illusive Beauty that points him to God.

Knowing a bit more of her own story and journey helps us see just how much C.S. Lewis learned from Joy Davidman.  Here's the bit:

“For I was a well-brought-up, right-thinking-child of materialism. Beauty, I knew, existed; but God, of course, did not. By now there is a whole generation like me in the cities of America. I was an atheist and the daughter of an atheist; I had assumed that science had disproved God, just as I had assumed that science had proved that matter was indestructible….

As a Jew, I had been led to feel cold chills at the mention of his name. Is this strange? For a thousand years Jews have lived among people who interpreted Christ’s will to mean floggings and burnings, ‘gentleman’s agreements,’ and closed universities. If nominal Christians so confuse their Master’s teaching, surely a poor Jew may be pardoned a little confusion. Nevertheless I had read the Bible (for its literary beauty, of course!) and I quoted Jesus unconsciously in everything I did, from writing verse to fighting my parents. My first published poem was called ‘Resurrection’ — a sort of private argument with Jesus, attempting to convince him (and myself) that he had never risen. I wrote it at Easter, of all possible seasons, and never guessed why.”

--from Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman by Don W. King, pages 83… 86