It kind of hurts

This Saturday morning, I sat down in the living room after rolling out of bed.

Then I remembered I was supposed to receive “Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” from Netflix in the mail that day. Since the mail usually comes around 10 a.m. and it was quite a bit after that - it was Saturday after all - I went to get it.

Thankfully, the red envelope was in the mailbox, and I excitedly popped it into the XBox back in the living room. As the previews played, I made myself a quad-shot iced mocha then settled back to watch the third in the epic saga based on the books by C.S. Lewis.

I have read all of the “Chronicles of Narnia” books and have seen the first two movies. As scenes played on the TV, I remembered them from the book, but I didn’t remember how it ended until I got there in the film.

During the movie, Eustace Pevensie - the annoying cousin of the four children who star in the first two movies - gets changed into a dragon in Narnia. However, after he accepted his challenge and used it for good, Aslan changed him back.

Aslan scratched the sand in front of Eustace, which clawed away Eustace’s dragon scales.

At the end of the move, Edmund asked Eustace what it felt like when Aslan changed him from the dragon.

“No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t do it myself. Then came towards me. It sort of hurt, but it was a good pain, like when you pull a thorn from your foot,” Eustace explained.

Wow.

I sat there, just in awe of the beauty of that statement. How easily does that compare to our lives? No matter how hard we want to change, we just can’t get past our thick, scaly sins without God. However, it’s not always easy to take that step forward and become who you want to become. It can hurt.

Yet, that hurt, that suffering that we have to follow God is a good hurt. It’s a hurt that brings us exactly where we want to be.

The movie had many other beautiful lessons, which I might share with you another day. In the meantime, I encourage you to watch all the series yourself!