Dragons! (now there's an attention-grabbing title...)

Currently, I am reading through The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and I am on the fourth book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It has been said that Aslan, the great Lion, is a metaphor for Jesus. I have been keeping that in mind while I read and it is interesting to see how Lewis works his metaphor into every book and into every character, in some way. The most interesting passage to me is found in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and I stumbled upon it this evening so I thought I would share it with whomever is reading this. (Bear with me, as it's a fairly long passage.)

To provide some background, Eustace is the one speaking and he is explaining about how Aslan (whom he does not know about) has returned him to his human state, after being trapped as a dragon for several days. Eustace was a "beastly" boy and he complained about everything and everyone else, but he could do no wrong in his own eyes. He was made into a dragon because of his selfish and dragonish thoughts. So, onwards with the passage!

"So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden--trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
...The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me that I must undress first.
...I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. ...So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully... In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means that I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe. Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg...Then the lion said, 'You will have to let me undress you.'
...The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that mde me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.
...Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been."

After this, Aslan throws Eustace into the well so that he can bathe and he realizes that he is a boy again, instead of a dragon. Aslan gives Eustace new clothes to wear and returns him to his friends.

What I found interesting about this passage is how it mirrors what Christ does to/for believers. He peels back our "skin" of sin and makes us a new creation in Him. He calls himself "living water" and we are called to put off our old selves and be made new in Him. Honestly, though, I can't get rid of my sin by myself. I know how wretched and awful I am and those are on my good days. It is only through Jesus that I can actually be free from my sin and be made new, perfected in Him. I won't be perfect on this earth, but someday He will return and then I will be perfected for eternity. I long for that day.

Jesus is continually peeling back the layers of sin in my life and it hurts. It cuts to my heart, and it's hard to lie still and submit to the cleansing. But it has to be done if I want to be free from my dragon-heart and thoughts.

Anyways, those were just some thoughts that I had while I was reading. Have a lovely evening!

-Elisa.