“The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could
get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me
I must undress first… 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, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a
minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me,
looking rather nasty. I was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into
the well for my bathe. But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I
looked down and saw that there were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly
just as they had been before” (This happened two more times)
“But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it
had been no good. Then the lion said ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ So
I lay flat down on my back to 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 peeled off.
Well he peeled the beastly stuff right off and there it was, lying on the
grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobby-looking than the
others 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 and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the
pain had gone from my arm. And I saw why, I’d turned into a boy again.”
Mmm, can we all just take a second and think about that? I love
this passage so much because it sums up such a common issue that we easily over
look; self-righteousness. Now you might say ‘hold up Sam, I don’t think I’m
righteous or whatever.’ But every time you try to do something on your own that’s
what you’re saying to God. No matter how hard or how many times Eustance (the
boy in the passage) tried to clean his scales off, they always came back. No
matter how hard I try to clean myself up or rid myself of the mean thoughts,
the judging looks, the insecurities, the downright selfishness, it always comes
back. Y’all I am a mess and nothing that I do can change that. Praise the Lord
that there is a second paragraph in that book and that the Gospel continues.
Aslan, the lion, finally says to Eustance “You will have to let me.” Aslan is
the only one who can clean him of his dragon covering, but it’s not pretty.
Being cleaned by the lion is painful; it tears right through the heart. But it
works. Jesus is our lion. He is the only one who can clean up my mess, but even
more He wants to! He volunteers to strip me of my wickedness and man does it
hurt. Understanding how evil my core is and shifting my entire perspective on
life do not feel good. The bright side is that I come to realize how much I can’t
do on my own and how much I truly need Jesus. My dependence is on Him, not myself.
Gosh I’m sorry that was so long, but I seriously could talk
about this for hours and reread that passage 100 times and not be tired of it.
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything
as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” -2 Corinthians 3:5
