Surprised by Joy / Part 211 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

C.S. Lewis, was the marvelous British author of novels and non fiction whose titles include, 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' within the series of 'The Narnia Chronicles.' He also wrote the poignant 'Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life.' The latter is a partial autobiography published in 1955 describing Lewis' conversion to Christianity. His was an accidental discovery of the irresistible phenomenon he labelled “Joy.” The title itself was inspired by a William Wordsworth poem entitled, "Surprised By Joy — Impatient As The Wind", in which Wordsworth expresses the experience of temporarily forgetting the death of his beloved daughter only to be reminded with a stab of joy once again as he thinks about her and what he has lost. This is what he wrote.

"Surprised by joy — impatient as the Wind / I turned to share the transport — Oh! with whom / But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb, / That spot which no vicissitude can find? / Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind — / But how could I forget thee? Through what power, / Even for the least division of an hour, / Have I been so beguiled as to be blind / To my most grievous loss?--That thought's return / Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore, / Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn, / Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more; / That neither present time, nor years unborn / Could to my sight that heavenly face restore."

I am struck with empathy for the eldest son of Paul and Zabeth Bayne who was three and one half years of age when he was removed from his parents and their family home by the Ministry of Children and the RCMP. His life until then was all about home: parents, baby brother, brand new sister, home, grandparents. At that moment he lost something undefinable and he grieved. What do we know about this small boy's grief. And then within months to be placed in his grandparents' home only briefly and then during a birthday party to be extracted again by people in authority. To be taken as his parents and grandparents stand crying and panicking and helpless to interfere or prevent. Compound that with his awareness that his younger brother too was forcibly taken, and to see his sybling's horror and sorrow and to not understand what is happening and why it is happening, and this comprised his new life. To be placed in homes where his needs are met and relationships develop and there is warmth and affection and yet he finds that his parents visit with him each week for a few hours but then there is always the wrenching goodbye, and why? And tears and an uncontrollable pain of confusion so profound it has become a part of who he is. He is forever affected by what the Ministry of Children has done to him and his family. He sees his mommy and daddy cry at times. His mind can still recall home as he knew it three years ago. Will he ever be able to return he wonders? How much is warehoused so deeply within him there is no further explanation needed for the development subnormality.

And then I long that he might this summer be SURPRISED BY JOY, and that the hope that he has treasured, guarded so tightly somehow, will be realized.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 66 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

TIME

We are constantly talking about time. We feel its constraints. Time is money. Time ran out. It's about time. There is a time for everything. Time is of the essence. Time's up. Time out. Don't waste my time. We're out of time. Give me a little more time. I didn't have enough time. Where did all the time go? How time flies! I'm just killing time.

Time is the sphere in which our lives are contained. All of your lives you have filled in forms on which one of the priority questions was the date of birth. Grave markers have two dates, one noting birth date and the other denoting a person's date of death. Time holds the boundaries of our earthly existence.

C.S. Lewis, the prolific novelist and Christian apologist wrote the Narnia series of children’s novels. In the realm of make-believe a writer can manipulate time. In the first book, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," four children, all siblings spend several days in an old professor's house. In one room is a large wardrobe. When they open the wardrobe they see only hanging fur coats. One by one the children hide inside the wardrobe and each finds that there is no back wall. Rather, behind the fur coats is an entrance into another world of strange creatures and difficult struggles. When at last, they come back to the real world, after a journey that seems months long if not years, they discover that in real earth time it is only the very next moment after they climbed inside the wardrobe.

For over two years Zabeth and Paul Bayne have survived emotional and psychological collapse while they have subsisted on a few hours each week with their three children. It must seem longer than twenty-six months to them. It must feel like a decade. They have waited all this time for the suitable time to defend themselves and prove to an impartial judge that the initial diagnosis of shaken baby was hasty, unreliable, mistaken and that they have never harmed any of their children and that they are fit and good parents who deserve to have their children returned to them.

On January 13th to the 15th an impartial judge, having listened to the legal counsel for the Ministry of Children and Family Development and to the legal representative for the Baynes, will pass judgements, the affects of which will mark this time forever. I am trusting that the Baynes will be able at last to emerge victorious from their nightmare. Not victors over human foes and systems but rather victorious over personal long term emotional wreckage and bitterness. I want them to be victors over crushing disappointments and demoralizing discouragements. Government has let them down, has let their children down, and has bred distrust in the people it serves. I am hoping that the Bayne family will come out from behind the fur coats in January and the day will be like the continuation of the wonderful life they were enjoying two years ago. Earth time will yield to God's good time.