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Ever try to change yourself, but wind up failing? Have you tried to break a bad habit only to find yourself returning to it, again and again? If so, you’re not alone. The good news is, there’s a way to be truly changed forever.
But be warned! C. S. Lewis says it’s as difficult and painful as skinning a dragon.
In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, world-famous novelist and Christian theologian C. S. Lewis introduces his readers to Eustace Scrubb, a rude, irritable, and downright mean little boy who would rather be alone with his bugs and books than with his friends and family. But when Eustace is transported to the mystical land of Narnia, along with cousins Lucy and Edmund, his life takes a turn for the wild.
On Dragon Island, Eustace discovers the treasure trove of a dead dragon and wants it for his own. While scheming over his plunder, Eustace puts on the dead dragon’s golden bracelet and falls asleep on the pile of loot. When he wakes, he discovers he has become a dragon, himself.
Living life as a dragon was terrible. For starters, his fellow adventurers tried to kill him for fear of their lives. The golden bracelet was painfully tight on his arm, and his size and appearance meant that he couldn’t be with his kind. He was isolated because of his attitude, his greed…and his tendency to breathe fire.
He wanted to be changed back to a boy worse than anything in the world.
Eventually, Eustace met the mighty lion named Aslan, the character C. S. Lewis personifies as Christ. Aslan tells Eustace that if he wants to be changed into a boy, he must undress. As a dragon, Eustace wasn’t wearing any clothes, so he assumed that Aslan meant his scaly hide. He began scratching himself, and sure enough, scales began to fall off “all over the place.” He scratched even deeper and his skin began to peel away like “a banana.”
Eustace felt overjoyed, thinking he had put his existence as a dragon behind him…until he looked down and saw more scales and hide. But being a student of bugs and insects, he consoled himself with the hope that this was just another layer he must get through, so he resumed his scratching and tearing. Even more scales and rough skin were removed, but when Eustace viewed his reflection in a pool, he still saw the features of a terrible dragon.
That’s when Aslan said, “You will have to let me undress you.”
Eustace was afraid of Aslan’s fierce-looking claws, but because he was so desperate to be a boy again, he resigned himself to the lion’s plan. Aslan began tearing so deeply into Eustace that the boy thought the lion’s claws had gone right into his very heart. The pain was intense, worse than anything he’d ever felt, but the scales began to fall away. The only reason Eustace continued the painful procedure was because of the hope he had in losing his dragon identity.
Eventually, the dragon hide and scales were completely peeled away from Eustace and tossed aside. Aslan then took the boy and dressed him in new clothes.
It may be a child’s story, but Lewis knew what he was writing about. He knew that we cannot change ourselves, that we cannot break our own bonds of sin. Lewis knew that only Christ can do that. But according to Lewis – and the Bible – Jesus doesn’t just tear away the sin (dragon), He also dresses us in righteousness (new clothes).
Isn’t it about time to let Jesus undress and redress you?
Resource’s Origin:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. HarperCollins, 1952, Pages 106-110.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Alone
C. S. Lewis
Change
Disappointment
Failure
God’s Power
Greed
Hope
Hopeless
Jesus
Lonely
Pain
Restoration
Transformation
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
