The Claws That Set Him Free

In C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is a boy named Eustace Scrubb who is so consumed by greed that he falls asleep on a dragon's hoard and wakes up transformed into a dragon himself. His outside finally matches what has been festering inside all along.

Desperate to be human again, Eustace tries to fix himself. He scratches at the dragon skin with his own claws, peeling it away layer after layer. Each time he thinks he has broken through, he looks down and finds yet another layer of scales underneath. His best efforts at self-renovation cannot reach deep enough.

Then Aslan, the great Lion, comes to him in the night. "You will have to let me undress you," he says. And Aslan's claws go deeper than Eustace's ever could. It hurts — Eustace says the pain was worse than anything he had ever felt — but when the Lion tears the last layer free and throws him into a pool of clear water, he comes out tender-skinned and new. A boy again. Healed.

This is how the Almighty works. We spend years trying to peel away our own damage — through willpower, self-help, sheer determination — and we find there is always another layer we cannot reach. Real healing requires a hand stronger and more tender than our own. It requires surrender.

The good news is that the One whose hands wound us into wholeness is the same One who loves us too much to leave us in our scales.