Obedience Transforms Us

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis tells the story o fEustace Scrubb, who turns into a dragon as the result of his greed and selfishness. After spending some time as a dragon, Eustace encounters Aslan, who tells him to take off the scales. What follows is an excellent illustration of how obedience transforms us, even if it is difficult. Eustace says, “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” (C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [London: HarperCollins, 1998], 130). Eustace discovers that he has more layers of dragon flesh to peel off and only Aslan can help him get rid of it all. However, Eustace’s obedience demonstrates his submission to Aslan’s plan. Similarly, we must learn to obey the Lord’s commands, even when the task is quite difficult.