The Claws That Heal

In C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the boy Eustace Scrubb falls asleep on a dragon's hoard and wakes to discover he has become a dragon himself. His greed has turned him into the thing he coveted. Miserable and isolated, Eustace longs to be human again.

Then Aslan appears and leads him to a well of clear water. Eustace tries to peel off the dragon skin himself. He scratches and tears, and a layer comes away — but underneath is another layer of scales. He tries again. Another layer. Again. Still a dragon. He cannot shed it on his own.

Finally Aslan says, "You will have to let me undress you." And with His great, sharp claws, the lion tears deep — far deeper than Eustace could have ever reached. It hurts terribly. But when Aslan is finished, He throws the boy into the water, and Eustace emerges with soft, human skin. Healed. Restored. Made new.

This is the way the Almighty heals us. We try our own remedies — we manage, we cope, we peel back one layer of pain only to find another beneath it. But real healing requires a deeper work than we can do for ourselves. It requires the hands of God, reaching into places we cannot reach, touching wounds we have learned to live around rather than live through.

Healing hurts before it restores. But the One who wounds the dragon skin is the same One who carries us into the water.