In his third book, in the series of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis tells the story of the transformation the difficult little boy Eustace. Eustace is this nasty little complainer who is generally obnoxious and awakens to find out that he has become a green scaly dragon himself.
Eustace sobs when he realizes the meaning of this reality, his outside now reveals his inward being. He comes to understand that he does not have the ability to remove this outward skin. Aslan – the lion and the Christ figure in the story – explains to Eustace that he must allow Aslan to undress him before he can be renewed in the wonderful waters of renewal.
The very first tear was so deep that I thought he 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 that stuff peel off. After he peeled off all the skin, i was as smooth and soft as a peeled switch. He caught hold of me and through me in the water. At first it smarted, but then it became perfectly delicious. I’d returned into a boy again…. And after a bit the Lion took me out of the water and dressed me. New clothes and all.
God intends to make us into new persons who reflect his image. To do so he must remove the old skin that represents our old way of life and clothe us with new skin made in the likeness of him. In order to become like him we must become boys again.
The Christian life is a lifelong process of taking off the soiled, tattered garments of our sinful nature and being dressed with a fresh set of clothes that will transform us into beings reflecting God’s holiness and righteousness.
God’s intent for you to reflect his image: “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24).
The Holy Spirit is God’s tailor: he is ready to give us a new set of clothes and discard the old threadbare wardrobe. But the old way of life dies a slow, bitter, bloody death. It does not want to give up its grip. Yet the new set of clothes are so much more becoming.
As in Eustace’s story, it is the Lord who must be giving permission to dress us anew. We can’t remove the scales ourselves. Our prayer should be, “Lord, do what it takes, reach as deep as you need, go after the wrong thinking, wrong feelings, wrong behaviors. Go straight to the heart of the matter, because our desire is to be made over, renewed, in the likeness of God.
