For the first time this morning I caught a glimpse of C.S. Lewis's wardrobe into Narnia as a kind of prayer closet. The wardrobe doesn't close in like you think of a closet doing, it opens out into another world, like you think of prayer doing. Couple that with the contrast (in Genesis 35) of Benjamin's name with his other name given at birth: Benoni "child of MY sorrow." That is a name that closes in on itself in its self-centeredness MY sorrow), whereas "Benjamin" (the son of THE right hand - no possessive pronoun) the name his father gave him, is a name that opens or blossoms out of itself like a flower. It speaks of a second birth or a strategic rebirth into another world where one is liberated from oneself to enter into the joys and pains or hopes and doubts of others. There are so many coasts and continents and corners and crevices within those continents of "Narnia" where the Holy Spirit wants to lead us on any given day, if we have entered the wardrobe-closet and become spiritually poised and positioned for those excursions, which at times involve people we haven't thought of for months or even years!
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