One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity (book 4 chapter 9) is his metaphor comparing the believer to a house (he attributes it to George Macdonald).

Lewis writes:

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.

Compare the quote above to this one, from Book 1 Chapter 5 of the _Confessions_ of St. Augustine:

My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it. It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it. It contains much that you will not be pleased to see: this I know and do not hide. But who is to rid me of these things? There is no one but you …

I’m sure that Macdonald was aware of his source. Indeed, he (or Lewis) pushes the metaphor in an interesting direction to make a point about the insincere, or sincere but circumscribed prayer. But it is delightful to see where one’s metaphors come from. … I wonder where Augustine got it?