The Healing Only Aslan's Claws Could Reach

In C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the selfish boy Eustace Scrubb falls asleep on a dragon's hoard and wakes to discover he has become a dragon himself. His greed has quite literally consumed him. Desperate and miserable, Eustace tries to scratch off the dragon skin. He peels away one layer, then another, then a third — but each time, a new layer of scales appears underneath. He cannot dig deep enough to reach the boy buried beneath the beast.

Then Aslan appears. "You will have to let me undress you," the great Lion says. And with the first tear of His claws, Eustace feels a pain deeper than anything he inflicted on himself — but when the skin finally comes off, the Lion throws him into a well of clear water, and for the first time, the sting feels wonderful.

This is how the Almighty heals. We try our own remedies — we manage, we cope, we peel back one layer of hurt only to find another waiting. But true healing requires a deeper work than our own hands can do. It requires surrender to One whose touch may sting before it restores.

The good news is this: the same hands that wound the dragon skin are the hands that carry us into the water. God does not tear away our brokenness and leave us exposed. He tears it away and makes us new.