Sing a Song
I read the Chronicles of Narnia for the first when I was 27, which was last year. One of my favorite books in the Chronicles would be Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Its this fascinating tale about a trip the main characters take to all these islands, and learn about the kings of old. There is a cousin named Eustace whose allowed to go on the trip despite the fact that he is an annoyance to all around him. While on this trip Eustace receives his own, personal encounter with the Lion Aslan. Eustace, at one point, goes to sleep as a boy and wakes up as a dragon. He’s this huge, scaly reptile, and none of the kids know what to do. Eustace is feeling helpless, faithless and fearful. His only hope is Aslan, because as much as Eustace scratches the scales they don’t come close to shedding off. Aslan comes along, and uses His lion-claws to cut off the dragon skin. He throws Eustace into this pool of water, and Eustace is made whole again.
It’s rather odd to say that I connected with a boy who was turned into a dragon in a children’s book, but I did. Around the same time I was reading the Chronicles I was experiencing some things being “cut off” and being ripped out of my life. I didn’t suffer relational losses, or deaths of friends or family. I did experience a dying to self, and a sense of salvation lost. Of course I don’t believe, theologically, that you can loose your salvation, but I did loose it in a sense. God was ripping away all the things I had placed my salvation in: my theology, opinions, church background, experience, ideas, everything but Christ. I had surrounded myself, clothed myself, and identified myself more with my career as a Christian (my dragon, if you will) than I did with Christ Himself. So when those things were being taken away I experienced a sense of salvation lost, but it wasn’t true salvation. The Gospel is the story of redemption, and the restoration of God’s people to Himself. Christ is our only hope, and salvation.
New Skin
By R. D. Helmick
Vr1.
Tears in his eyes
Underneath the moonlight (light)
Tried to shed for the third time
It didnt reach the inside (inside)
Ch.1
The thoughts in his heart had
Transformed his outside
Eustace has become a dragon
A dragon by the sea
Vr.2
Many I have too shed
Will this process ever end (end)
Tears in my eyes
Underneath the moonlight (light)
Ch.2
These thoughts in my heart have
Taken over the inside
I have become like Eustace
A dragon by the sea
Vr.3
Aslan the Lion said,
“I can make you a boy again (again)
You will have to let me
Undress you with my claws (claws)”
Ch.3
The cut went so deep he thought
“It went straight to my heart”
Dark skin was on the ground
And Eustace the boy was found
Ch. 4
I too have seen this Aslan
This lion and His claws
He’s cut away everything
So I can only cling to the cross
He’s cut away everything
So I can only cling to the cross
Tears in our eyes
Underneath the moonlight (light)