Perfectly Delicious

“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 of a sore place.  It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
 
. . .
 
“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.  (Lewis 114-116)

The imagery is both violent and beautiful; one can’t decide whether to look away or stare in wonder! The preceding words belong to C.S. Lewis from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The scene, one no film version has been able to do justice, casts creative light on the gracious act of God to “purify us from all unrighteousness.”
 
In prior pages of The Voyage, one can’t help but hold near-hatred for Eustace, the entitled, weasel-of-a-boy, cousin to the four Pevensie children. As we read, we discover that Aslan loves weasels. That is to say, Lewis artfully “preaches” the truth of God’s redeeming love for all who repent and believe by telling of Aslan’s care for the once-careless child who couldn’t care less about anyone else until becoming a dragon brought him to his senses.
 
Haven’t we all, at times, transformed into dragons and acted like weasels?

In his first letter, the Apostle John wrote extensively on the subject of love (agape). Nine verses into the letter, we read the amazing news that never goes stale.

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1 John 1:9 (NIV)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Today, do you need some scales removed? Today, are you acting a bit “weaselish”? Or are you a boy (girl) again? Whatever your answer may be, God is ready to bring you into a life that can be “perfectly delicious.”
 
 
#ordinarylives
 
For further reading …
Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Book 5, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. New York: Harper Collins, 1952.