Weekly Devotional: July 15, 2026

GOD’S WORD
Ephesians 2:3; Psalm 51:10; Ezekiel 36:26; II Corinthians 5:17

DEVOTION BY
Major Cindy Corbitt
Assistant Territorial Personnel Secretary

DEVOTIONAL
PICTURES FROM NARNIA – EUSTACE’S DRAGON

“I bring my sins to Jesus, as I pray
That His blood will wash them all away;
While I seek for favor at His feet,
And with tears His promise still repeat,
He doth tell me plainly Jesus lives and forgives.”
- Herbert H. Booth, Song #495 The Salvation Army Songbook

THE BEGINNING OF REPENTANCE

Eustace Clarence Scrubb is one of the most remarkable characters in The Chronicles of Narnia, not because he begins well, but because he begins terribly. C.S. Lewis famously introduces him by saying he “almost deserved” his dreadful name. He is selfish, whiny, arrogant, and utterly convinced of his own superiority. He mocks the others, refuses to help, and complains about everything. In short, he is the kind of person we avoid and sometimes the kind of person we secretly are.  But Eustace’s transformation is one of the most powerful pictures of spiritual rebirth in modern literature. His journey from boy to dragon and back again mirrors the biblical truth that sin deforms us, repentance awakens us, and only God can truly change us.

Eustace becomes a dragon not through a curse, but through his own heart. After wandering off in selfishness and greed, he slips a golden bracelet onto his arm and falls asleep on a dragon’s hoard. When he wakes, he discovers that he has become the very thing his heart resembled —lonely, greedy, and monstrous.

Lewis is making a profound point: Sin is not merely something we do; it is something that shapes who we become. Scripture echoes this truth: “We were by nature children of wrath…” — Ephesians 2:3

Sin is not just an action.  It is a condition.  It twists our desires.  It distorts our relationships.  It isolates us from others and from God.

Eustace’s dragon form is an outward picture of an inward reality. And when he realizes what he has become, he is devastated. For the first time, he sees himself clearly.  This is the beginning of repentance.

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART

One of the most moving parts of Eustace’s story is his sorrow. As a dragon, he becomes gentle, helpful, and humble. He wants to change. He tries to change. He longs to be restored.  But he cannot.   He scratches at his scales.  He tears off layer after layer of dragon skin.  Each time he thinks he has peeled it all away, he looks down and sees another layer beneath.

Lewis describes this with painful accuracy. Anyone who has ever tried to “fix themselves” knows the feeling. We try to peel away bad habits, selfish motives, and destructive patterns only to discover that the problem goes deeper.

David understood this when he prayed: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” — Psalm 51:10

He did not say, “I will create a clean heart.”  He said, “Lord, You must do it.”  Because we cannot.

THE WORK OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS

When Eustace finally meets Aslan, he is desperate. He wants to be free. He wants to be himself again.  Aslan tells him plainly: “You will have to let me undress you.”  What follows is one of the most powerful metaphors for transformation ever written.

Aslan digs His claws into Eustace’s dragon skin.  It hurts, far more than Eustace expects.  But it is a good pain, a necessary pain, a healing pain.  Lewis writes that it felt like the Lion was tearing deeper than Eustace thought possible, deeper than he could ever have reached on his own.  This is the work of God in the human heart.

Ezekiel describes it this way: “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” — Ezekiel 36:26

• Only God can reach the layers we cannot. 

• Only God can remove the hardness we cannot soften.

• Only God can transform us from the inside out.

After Aslan tears away the final layer, He throws Eustace into a pool of water. It stings at first, then refreshes. When Eustace emerges, he is a boy again, but not the same boy. Paul writes: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

THIS IS WHAT GRACE DOES

Eustace is not perfect after his transformation, but he is changed.  He is kinder.  He is humbler.  He is grateful.  He is teachable.  This is what grace does.  It does not make us flawless.  It makes us new.

Eustace’s story invites us to ask a difficult but necessary question: Where have we become dragons?  Where have we allowed bitterness, pride, fear, or selfishness to shape us?  Where have we tried to fix ourselves, only to discover deeper layers beneath?  Where do we need God to do what we cannot?

The good news is that Christ does not wait for us to peel ourselves clean.  He comes to us in our dragon form.  He meets us in our brokenness.  He lays His healing claws upon us not to destroy, but to restore.

SURRENDER

Eustace’s transformation required one thing: surrender.  He had to stop trying to save himself. He had to let Aslan do the painful, beautiful work of renewal.

This is the heart of the Christian life.  Not self-improvement.  Not moral effort.  Not peeling away our own layers.  Surrender.  Letting God dig deeper.  Letting God cleanse what we cannot reach.  Letting God make us new.