Day 42 | The Dragon Skin
July 7, 2015 - WEEK SIX
Giuseppe Craffonara, Christus, Image from Buchhändler, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
DAILY READING
There is no scripture reading assigned today. Use this day to catch up as needed and ponder the supplemental reading.
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
A Metaphor for Forgiveness: Eustace and the Dragon Skin
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 bath.
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 underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too….
Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off?…
Then the lion said… “You will have to let me undress you.” I was afraid 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.…
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off … and there it was, lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been (Clive Staples Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, New York: Collier Books, 1970, 113–16).
ADDITIONAL MEDIA
FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
QUESTIONS FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
- How can you find the Lord in your youth?
- If you want to find something, does it take effort on your part?
- What things must you do to find the Lord?