The three-story C.S. Lewis Library is complete with a lower school library, upper school library, and art mezzanine. With a collection of over 17,000 books and media, the spaces are designed to meet the developmental needs of each age group, while encouraging exploration, imagination, and creativity.
The three-story C.S. Lewis Library offers a lower school library, upper school library, and art mezzanine. With a collection of over 17,000 books and media, the spaces are designed to meet the developmental needs of each age group, while encouraging exploration, imagination, and creativity.
From our Librarian, Lou Alice Rogers, story-telling stones: In the C.S. Lewis Upper School Library, we have a beautiful stone fireplace. Seeing it go up last year put me in mind of Joshua, the newly appointed leader of the Israelites crossing the Jordan on his way to claim the promised land. The Lord told him to have a representative from each of the twelve tribes choose a rock to bring to the other side as a memorial.
Psalm 16:6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Joshua spoke to the children of Israel, saying “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land; for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
The stones were gathered to tell the story. The story of God’s faithfulness; His unfailing, never-leaving, all-encompassing love for His people. That in this new chapter for the Israelites that God would continue to pursue, to call them to Him. That He would not drop them off on the banks of the Jordan and leave the rest to them. That whatever had been accomplished or was to come would be by Him, not by them. The Lord knew that there would be a moment when it dawned on the Israelites that having been delivered from a 40 year perambulation through the desert... now what?
For it is only in those moments of trial and great frustration that we get to experience the hand of God and our need for Him to come to the rescue. It was one of the biggest puzzlements of the Christian faith. What we think of blessing --no problems, no discomfort, easiness-- is really the desire not to need Him, to resist leaning on Him, to be insulated from our need for Him and the emptiness we feel apart from Him. But ease is not where the Lord meets us. It is in the deserts, the floods, the hard relationships that the Lord shows up and shows Himself strong. He is coming for our hearts. The construction of the new spaces have taken time and required patience. He has “let” us experience the growing pains of being in close community. But there have been blessings in those bumps. And not just the acquisition of beautiful new spaces. The construction is behind us, and we have moved into our new spaces. As we transition from “the move” into normalcy, my prayer for the students and the faculty and the parents is to allow the stones and bones of these new buildings to spur us on to “approve the things that are excellent” and to “meditate on the things of God.”
We do not rest in the comfort and beauty of our spaces. We are about the business of telling the story, God’s story, where the Christian life is fully explored and enjoyed in all of the Fine Arts. We have been given a lovely inheritance, and are excited to be settling back into the mission of educating children and reminding them of their rich inheritance from the Lord. Please come by and visit the C.S. Lewis Library and see for yourself our “story-telling” stones.