‘The Great Divorce’, a theological fantasy by C.S. Lewis, is one of my favourite books. It makes the top three on my list of best Christian apologetics for its picture of the afterlife, a picture which is both sobering and uplifting in equal measure.

One of its most powerful scenes is our protagonist’s encounter with a lady called Sarah Smith. In the foothills of a country we indistinctly understand to be heaven, the narrator hears the approaching sounds of a glorious procession. As it comes into view, he sees dancing youths and bright spirits scattering flowers before the feet of the one in whose honour they process.