This is a passage from the Voyage od the Dawn Treader that i really enjoyed. It's about how Eustace becomes de-dragoned.
And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain i'd never seen before and on top of this mountain there was a garden-trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
"i knew it was a well because you could see the waterbubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was bigger than most wells-like a very big, round bath with marble stepsgoing down into it. The water was as clear as anything and i thought if i could get in there and cathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me i must undress first. Mind you, i don't know if he said any words out lod or not.
"I was going to say that i couldn't undress myself because i hadnt any clothes on when i suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought i, that's what the lion means. So i started scrathing 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 des 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 bathe.
"But just as i was going to put my foot into the water i looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that's all right, said i, it only means i had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and i'll have to get out of it too. so i scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out i stepped and left it lying there beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
"well, exactly the same thing happened again. And i thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have i got to take off?? For i was longing to bathe my leg. So i scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as i looked at myself in the water i knew it had been no god.
"then the lion said-but i dont 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 htought it had gone right into my heart. And when he pulled 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."
"I know exactly what you mean," sadi edmund.
"well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as i though 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 that the others had been. And there was i as smooth and soft as a peeled switch ans smaller than i had been. Then he caught hold of me-i didnt 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. Ane then i saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if i told you how i felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but i was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me-"
"Dressed you. With his paws?"
"well, i dont exactly remember that bit. but he did somehow or other: in new clothes-the same i've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly i was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."
"No. It wasn't a dream," said Edmund.
"Why not?"
"well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been-well, un-dragoned, for another."
"what do you think it was, then?" asked Eustace.
"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.
i feel in love with this passage the second i read it and then realized that someone at somepoint had read this at a service at camp this summer and i didnt really get it. I get it now. God peels away our layers of sin as Aslan has done for Eustace. Although there are many things that we try to do ourselves, we just cant do it without his help. It really made me think and realize that i try to do to much and dont depend on God enough for the things that i need and the things he wants me to do, Im too busy doing it all myself and never even comsidering asking him for help. This is one of the things that i've learned so far on Commonfire even though it's only been a few weeks, God works quickly whe he wills it. The detail in this passage is beautiful, you can feel the agony Eustace is in while he's a dragon and the pain that he has. You can also see how tenderly Aslan treats him and how patient he is, as God is with us. He will let us try to do things ourselves if that is what we need, and when we realize that we cant keep doind them ourselve, that we keep falling back to our old ways, he will come to us and help us and it will be done right. It's beautiful. God Bless | 
