C.S. Lewis quote

Thanks to my friend Melissa who referenced this quote during a conversation about life and suffering that prompted me to search for it.

This is from C.S. Lewis' short book The Great Divorce. The town it is referring to is Hell, where the main character and a bus full of people start out before their trip to Heaven where they must all decide if they are willing to stay or if they prefer Hell to Heaven.  

"Son," he said, "ye cannot in your present state understand eternity... Not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say 'Let me but have this and I'll take the consequences': little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, 'We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly."

It is an insightful book and this one quote alone made it worth reading for me. I have always known intellectually that suffering has a part in God's plan and helps shape us into who He wants us to be. This quote gives me another perspective that suffering is not just something to be endured because we have to but will actually be a treasured part of our life when we look back on it. It gives me motivation to try to be grateful for suffering not just after it is past but also throughout, and to be grateful for all the Heaven-like qualities that already bless my life.