The Envy of Eve : Finding Contentment in a Covetous World

by Melissa B. Kruger

Both our blessings and our trials propel us towards this ultimate and better good. C.S. Lewis describes this process in the following way: ‘Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.’19 God does not promise that our life here on earth will be one of ease or comfort. He does promise to transform our lowly bodies so they will be like His glorious body. If we want to fight our inordinate desires, we must realize and believe that our desires are so much less than what God desires for us. We also must realize that our desires and longings show that we are actually made for something much more.