In April of 2007 my big--well, older--brother Raymond and I traveled by train from London--no, not London, Kentucky--to spend a day in Oxford--no, not Oxford, Mississippi. We spent the day retracing the footsteps of friends J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. From Magdalen College to Addison's Walk to The Eagle and Child. We enjoyed fish and chips in the small alcove where the two men gathered weekly with their fellow "Inklings," reading from their works in progress. Think Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings.
The Chronicles is among the most ambitious of Lewis' works; it's the Chronicles that introduced Aslan the Lion--the beloved, allegorical figure of the Christ. Aslan is featured in several remarkable passages including the following story of Eustace--rhymes with Useless--from the pages of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Eustace is a selfish and greedy, whiny little boy, cousin to the more familiar Lucy and Edmund. He's taken aboard the Dawn Treader with Prince Caspian. The ship makes port at several islands including one where Eustace wanders away and finds himself at the cave of a dying dragon. When he's certain the dragon has breathed its last, Eustace enters the cave to find it filled with treasure. He fills his pockets and conspires to get the treasure on board the ship without the knowledge of his mates. Did I mention he was selfish? He ends up falling asleep on the treasure, and awakening to find that he has become a dragon. He's miserable. He's alone. It's here that Aslan appears in the story. The powerful lion leads Eustace to a bubbling well with marble steps descending into the water. We join Lewis as Eustace later recalls his remarkable encounter with Aslan:
"I won't tell you how I became a--a dragon till I can tell the others and get it all over...By the way, I didn't even know it was a dragon till I heard you all using the word when I turned up the other morning. I want to tell you how I stopped being one...
"The water was clear as anything and I thought it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
"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. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. 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, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. 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 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 under-skin 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. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke--'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
"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 made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know-if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away...
"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. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me--I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on--and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phony if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...somehow or other: in new clothes--the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here..." (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, pp. 113-117).
Songwriter Kendall Payne composed "Aslan," a lovely ballad recalling the story of the Lion and Eustace:
Don't stop your crying on my account
A frightening lion, no doubt
He's not safe, no he's not safe
Are you tempted now to run away?
The King above all Kings is coming down
But He won't say the words you wish that he would
Oh, he don't do the deeds you know that He could
He won't think the thoughts you think He should
But He is good, He is good
I know you're thirsty, the water is free
But I should warn you, it costs everything
Well, He's not fair, no He's not fair
When He fixes what's beyond repair
And graces everyone that don't deserve
No one knows Him whom eyes never seen
No, I don't know Him but He knows me
He knows me, He knows me
Lay down your layers, shed off your skin
But without His incision, you can't enter in
He cuts deep, yeah He cuts deep
When the risk is great and the talk is cheap
But never leaves a wounded one behind
Thanks for sticking with me through a lengthy post...
How might you distinguish fully surrendering to Jesus
from employing scripture as another self improvement tool?
So, what's your learning around spiritual transformation?
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