Un-Dragoning
Friday Highlight – Un-Dragoning
“There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” That’s the first line of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third published book in CS Lewis’s classic series The Chronicles of Narnia. In it, Eustace accidentally joins his cousins Edmund and Lucy on an adventure in a magical world called Narnia. At first, Eustace is an extremely arrogant, annoying, greedy, selfish coward. He constantly complains, argues, brags, steals, looks down on others, and generally just looks after himself at the expense of others. The first line of the book tells you everything you need to know about him. The other characters (and Eustace) spend the first half of the book wondering why he’s even there. But then he stumbles upon a dragon.
The dragon–as they always do–has a cave filled with hoarded treasure. While Eustace watches (from a safe distance of course), the dragon crawls out of his cave and dies of old age. Eustace, suddenly very brave and wanting the treasure for himself, enters the cave, puts on a golden bracelet, and falls asleep on the treasure hoard. He thinks this is his ticket to freedom, comfort, power, and respect. But when he wakes up–horror of horrors–he himself has turned into a dragon. It’s terrible! He cries great dragon tears while he comes face to face with the fact that he was a dragon on the inside long before he was one on the outside.
He desperately wants to be free from the dragon skin, so he digs his claws into his scales and peels it off, but when he looks at his reflection, he’s still a dragon. He keeps trying to dig deeper and deeper, but there’s always more dragon skin underneath. But then, in one of the most moving scenes in the whole series, Aslan shows up. Aslan–the great golden Lion and central Christ figure–digs his claws into Eustace’s dragon skin. They cut deeper and hurt far worse than Eustace’s own claws, but when he sees himself, he’s a boy again. Aslan is the only one who could set Eustace free from his greed and selfishness. In that moment of “un-dragoning,” Eustace is forever changed. He’s free to be generous, kind, helpful, humble, and compassionate. He begins to contribute to the adventure instead of just taking. He finally sees his role as a part of something larger than himself.
Lewis is communicating a profound truth through the simple imagery of a dragon’s hoard: True riches don’t come from hoarding lots of treasure, but from trusting God with everything you have.
In Mark 12:41–44, Jesus makes this point by highlighting the actions of a poor widow at the temple:
And he [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
He’s not looking at the outward appearance, but at the heart. This widow trusts God with everything she has, and God loves to meet the needs of those who trust in him (1 Tim 6:17-19). On the surface, she donated far less than the big donors, but God doesn’t need our money. He owns everything already (Psalm 24:1)! He’s not impressed by the size of the offering, whether it’s time, talents, or treasure; he’s looking at your heart. He wants to see true riches welling up inside of you and overflowing into those around you, and we only get true riches by trusting God. He is moving in our midst, and he invites us to join him in the adventure of a lifetime, but to be a part of it we have to trust him with everything we have.
Eustace Clarence Scrubb trusted in the treasure, and he was horrified to see a dragon on the outside that had been lurking inside him all along. He needed the loving–albeit painful–help of Aslan to purify his desires and shake him out of his selfishness and greed. We all have that same dragon lurking inside of us. Run to Jesus today. Ask him to reveal any “dragonishness” in you and cut it away. It can be painful, but it’s worth it. Trust him with your time, talents, and treasure, and take a step to join him in the incredible work he is already doing. Unlike the dragon’s hoard, God is trustworthy, and he promises to never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).