Back to series
What The Bird Said Early In The Year
I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.
This year time’s nature will no more defeat you.
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.
This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well worn track.
- C.S. Lewis, What the Bird Said Early in the Year
More than an intellectual ode to spring, CS Lewis’s poem contrasts the temporal with the eternal. Addison’s Walk is a mile long path through the grounds at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Lewis had a midnight conversation with friends, J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. A plaque with the entire poem stands as a monument on the property. This conversation centered on the truth of Christianity (Christianity as the true myth) and was instrumental in Lewis’ conversion.
As Christians, it is important that we distinguish the temporal from the eternal. Our earthly bodies decay and break down, and we eventually lose our race with time. In eternity, in the presence of the Lord, time and nature lose their grip. All our unfulfilled “promised moments” that left us disappointed will be forgotten and swallowed up in the singular splendor of the Lord’s glory.

Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia BeachJoseph A. Kohm, C.S. Lewis Institute Vice President for Development and City Director for Virginia Beach. Joe is an attorney and formerly worked as a Certified Major League Baseball Player Agent. He earned his Master’s in Management Science from the State University of New York at Oswego and both his J.D. and M.Div. from Regent University. Joe is the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, 2022.)

COPYRIGHT: This publication is published by C.S. Lewis Institute; 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 301; Springfield, VA 22151. Portions of the publication may be reproduced for noncommercial, local church or ministry use without prior permission. Electronic copies of the PDF files may be duplicated and transmitted via e-mail for personal and church use. Articles may not be modified without prior written permission of the Institute. For questions, contact the Institute: 703.914.5602 or email us.
-
Recent Podcasts
Questions That Matter Podcast – Research About Prayer
by Randy Newman on March 24, 2023Academicians study prayer to see how it effects...Read More
-
How Can I Intelligently Discuss My Faith with Others?
by Joel Woodruff on March 24, 2023
-
The Side B Stories – Pedro Garcia
by Jana Harmon, Pedro Garcia on March 17, 2023
-
Recent Publications
Reflections: God, Animals and Imagination
by C.S. Lewis Institute on March 1, 2023C.S. Lewis had a love for animals, both...Read More
-
Reflections: We Must Be Ready At All Moments
by C.S. Lewis Institute on February 1, 2023
-
Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia
by Christin Ditchfield on February 1, 2023
0
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
18315
GLOBAL EVENT: Discovering Beauty, Goodness, and Truth – 8:00 PM ET
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/?event=global-event-discovering-beauty-goodness-and-truth-800-pm-et&event_date=2023-03-24®=1
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
2023-03-24

Next coming event
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
GLOBAL EVENT: Discovering Beauty, Goodness, and Truth – 8:00 PM ET
On March 24, 2023 at 8:00 pmSpeakers
Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia Beach
Team Members

Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia BeachJoseph A. Kohm, C.S. Lewis Institute Vice President for Development and City Director for Virginia Beach. Joe is an attorney and formerly worked as a Certified Major League Baseball Player Agent. He earned his Master’s in Management Science from the State University of New York at Oswego and both his J.D. and M.Div. from Regent University. Joe is the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, 2022.)
