Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
Psalm 42:7

It is Lent again. And all I receive when I pray is image upon image of water. I don’t know if you are sinking or swimming today, if a tsunami of suffering has swept you away. I don’t know if you’re diving deep in search of more God, or don’t even want to dip your toes in this pool of faith.

But this I do know: we are transformed in the water. I am reminded of Eustace, boy-turned-dragon, meeting the great lion of Narnia, Aslan (God), in C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader . Aslan appears to Eustace to save him from his dragon flesh and to restore his little boy body. The transformation is a three-step process: Eustace scratches off three layers of his scaly dragon flesh, but realizes his efforts “had been no good.”

“Then the lion said . . . ‘You will have to let me undress you.'”

And so Eustace, despite the fear of the pain, lay down and let Aslan claw his dragon skin off:
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off–just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times . . . And there I was 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 . . . ” pgs.474-475, The Chronicles of Narnia

I wonder about a Lent in which we didn’t try to abstain from caffeine or m&m’s, but rather remove a layer of ourselves? I wonder about a Lent that starts with a prayer of brokenness, a heart willing to lay down? I wonder about a Lent filled with enough desperation to allow the pain of God’s healing hands? To allow new skin? A fresh look, perhaps? Or a new look at life without scales over our eyes?

I wonder what layer, what skin, there is to lose as I venture into these waters. Where may He be leading, and what does He see that needs removing? I don’t know what God seeks specifically to remove from me this Lenten season; this challenge is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. But I will be praying for the will to let Him remove old dragon skin so that I may, too, plunge into delicious waters.

Forward, into the deep!

Taylor




Make sure to check out “ Alma heart Jesus ” for more beautiful images of scripture.

Twitt