On Dragons and assorted subjects

One of the parts that has always stuck with me from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (not my favorite Narnia book) was the scene in which Eustace gets un-dragoned, if you know what I mean.  The picture of Aslan digging his claws into Eustace's dragon skin and peeling it away was so interesting and vivid to me.  If you are unfamiliar with what I am talking about, here is the relevant excerpt:


“Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.”
“You mean it spoke?”
“I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
“I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. 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. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
“I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. 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. It 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 feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they 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. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
“Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
“Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke – ‘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 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 peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three 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 - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - 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 then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me –“
“Dressed you. With his paws?”
“Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”
“No. It wasn't a dream,” said Edmund.
“Why not?”
“Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been - well, un-dragoned, for another.”
“What do you think it was, then?” asked Eustace.
“I think you've seen Aslan,” said Edmund.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – Chapter 7

I feel like this a very clear picture of what God is doing in my life right now, and has been doing for a while.  I've been carefully and slowly peeling my dragon-hide away layer by layer, and getting impatient with how little progress I've been making.  And now God has started digging in his claws and pulling that skin off and oh does it hurt, but it feels so good at the same time.

On a slightly different note, let's talk about this past week.  I've come back to school (which is going fine, blah blah blah) and am excited about this semester!  It's going to be so good!  I've kept up with my books and movies fast (kind of... more on that later) and it's just so good to be back with some of these people whom I love (not that I don't love everyone back home, it's just... different.  It's a different feel to it.  Equally good, but different.).

I've been having some soaking/prayer/conversation with God time (it kind of starts off as one or the other and morphs through all three before it ends) multiple times this week which has been good and beautiful.  Mmmm... His presence is... Good. What an inadequate word.  But I cannot think of any that work better.  He is good.

And I've been doing the 90 day Bible read through plan, which has been interesting and kind of fun.  Every time I read the Old Testament, I have these WTF? moments which are hilarious.  Oh the shenanigans that happened way back then... I have been getting good things out of it, in addition to laughter.  Tonight, for example, I was reading through Exodus and the descriptions of the Tabernacle, and I realized that it says specifically that the Holy Spirit came upon some dude whose name I don't remember and blessed him with creativity in order to craft the Tabernacle tent.  You never read creativity for the crafting of beautiful objects in the list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament, but it's totally something God gives people.  Which I knew, but it was fun to have it explicitly spelled out in the Bible.

As for the fast thing... I am still doing it, and I haven't broken the rules I laid out for myself, but I'm bending it a little bit.  I'm going to read through the Chronicles of Narnia (even though they are fiction) in addition to like, all of the other books C.S. Lewis has written (I know, it might be a bit difficult to do, but I want to do it.)  Also, I'm a bit ashamed of myself for following the letter of the law and not the spirit.  I spent quite a bit of time yesterday reading Lizzie Bennet Diaries fanfiction (nothing wrong with fanfiction, it's just...)... which is... (Some of it was well written, and had good plots and the characters were spot on, and others... not so much.)  So that's out from now on, because otherwise I know that I'm going to be spending too much time reading it and filling my head with things that I don't need (even the completely innocent and adorable Gigi and Darcy fanfiction with no hint of romance anywhere).

On another subject, I've found a new album that I really really like.  It's a concept kind of album (which means you should listen to it all the way through in the order that it's in) and it's a really good story of loss and redemption and Christian-y stuff.  Also, good for fans of Mumford and Sons (it has that kind of sound to it.)

Well, this is a long enough post, so I'm going to say goodbye for now. :)