"Then the lion said—but I don't know if it spoke—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. 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."
This passage in Voyage of the Dawn Treader talks about Eustace's experience with receiving healing from Aslan, turning from a dragon into a boy again.
God in love dries up the unclean stream, and withers the unfruitful tree, and empties the corrupted temple, and takes the destruction that the enemy has ushered into the world - the way he has enticed us to drink poison, murder our brother, and lie our way to personal glory and gain - and dies for all. Even if the sin was petty - He died for it. Even if we committed it a thousand times - He died for it. God in love empties to fill again. He allows our shaky structures of where we think we will find our safety to collapse - and He catches us. He dethrones our idols to take His rightful place on the throne of our hearts. He clothes us in robes of righteousness and gives us a ring to betroth Himself to us forever. But we forget that before he does that, he must strip off what we clothed ourselves in previously. God in love does not settle for less than a complete transformation of our hearts - from the inside out. And it feels as if we’re losing everything.
I’m learning that this Love is costly, but there is so much to gain.
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