“Strictly speaking he began to be a different boy…the cure had begun.” So ends the chapter in C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader wherein the self-centered, scornful Eustace Clarence Scrubb is transformed in to a greedy dragon and then ultimately healed by Aslan.

Following is an excerpt from the chapter that beautifully describes the process that we go through when the Lord begins the work of transforming our character.

“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.

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. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it.

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.

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 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.

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 then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me. And then suddenly I was back here.”

“And we all…are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  2 Corinthians 3:18