When Aslan Tore the Dragon Skin Away

In C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a selfish boy named Eustace Scrubb falls asleep on a dragon's hoard and wakes to discover he has become a dragon himself. His greed has literally consumed him, reshaping him into the very thing he worshiped. Desperate and miserable, Eustace tries to fix himself. He scratches at the scales, peeling away one layer, then another, then another — but each time, fresh dragon skin lies underneath. His best efforts cannot undo what he has become.

Then Aslan appears. The great Lion tells Eustace, "You will have to let me undress you." His claws cut far deeper than Eustace ever dared go. It is painful — Eustace says the first tear was "so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart." But when Aslan finishes and throws him into a clear pool of water, Eustace emerges as a boy again. Restored. Made new.

Lewis understood something about restoration that we so often forget. We cannot peel away our own brokenness. We scrape and scratch at the surface, making resolutions, trying harder, turning over new leaves — but the scales go deeper than our hands can reach. Restoration requires a touch more powerful and more loving than our own.

The Almighty does not simply patch us up. He reaches into the deepest places of our failure and remakes us from the inside out. His restoration hurts, yes — but it is the hurt of healing, not of harm.