Eustace

I have my good days and bad days when it comes to dealing with the ongoing saga of Gus' allergy mystery. Some days I'm at peace with God's plan, some days I'm angry that He hasn't healed him yet. Sometimes I feel both ways in one day. But I know that God is teaching me through this, and that is what (deep, deep down) I know I want. I want to be remolded and made more and more into someone who brings Him glory through my life. I want to get rid of the self-centeredness and self-pity that I've been so prone to. So...I've been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia (which are so much more fun to read as an adult!) and found this passage which I had forgotten about. I think it applies at all times in life, but it feels more real to me now.

(Background: Eustace Clarence Scrubb has been turned into a dragon while on an adventure with King Caspian. He encounters Aslan the Lion, and is in the process of trying to get rid of his dragon exterior)

"So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully....In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty....But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too....Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off?

Then the lion said...You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on the my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it 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 the stuff peel off. Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I'd done it myself the other times, only they hadn't hurt-and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me...and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious."

-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader