Remembering Our Baptism with Narnia

Remembering Our Baptism with Narnia January 24, 2025

The Shedding of the Skin

My husband and I always spend Christmas Day at home, but then in the days following Christmas we travel down to Florida to see my immediate family.

We have a lot of rhythms and rituals to our annual trip, including listening to audiobooks while we’re on the road.  We’re working our way through the Chronicles of Narnia, and we listened to the Voyage of the Dawn of Treader on this most recent trip.  The Dawn Treader was always my favorite out of that book series when I was growing up.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the book that introduces the character of Eustace.  Eustace is the cousin of the main characters, and he is spoiled, entitled, selfish.

During their adventures, Eustace finds a cave full of treasure and steals a piece of it.  The enchantment that is on the treasure turns him into a dragon.  Due to how antagonistic he was, this feels like his outward appearance becoming a truer reflection of his inner life.  Once he became a dragon, he could not change back into a boy on his own.  This meant that he could not continue on the journey with his companions.  He simply couldn’t fit on the boat.  It also meant being left behind in a world that he did not ask to come to.

This experience of suffering led him to explore deeper questions, like learning how to have gratitude and humility.  It also led him to that place of discernment that we all reach now and then, when we want to change but cannot do it alone.

The Christ figure in the Narnia universe is Aslan the Lion, who leads Eustace the dragon to a pool.  He asks Eustace to shed his dragon skin and go in the water.  Eustace claws off his skin and scales, trying to reveal the boy within.  He does shed his dragon skin, only to reveal another layer underneath.  Eustace does this three times, shedding his skin only to reveal deeper affliction beneath it.

Aslan tells him that we cannot heal our deepest afflictions on our own.  It must be done for us, on our behalf.  Aslan shreds the final skin, freeing the boy and tossing him in the water.

As we’re listening to all of this in the car, my husband says, “I didn’t realize this book was about baptism”.

Peeling Off The Layers

When we renounce the old life, the old self, and die with Christ in Baptism, we are raised with him to new life in the Spirit.

In Episcopal Baptismal liturgy, we’re asked three times to renounce and take a stand against evil, just as Eustace physically renounces his dragon skin three times.  Imagine peeling off the dragon scales in response to these questions.

  • Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces
    of wickedness that rebel against God?
  • Do you renounce the evil powers of this world
    which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
  • Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you
    from the love of God?

After renouncing, we like Eustace, accept what has been done on our behalf.

  • Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?
  • Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
  • Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?

We all need to renew our vows and priorities from time to time.  We all need to take a look in the mirror at how our outer life is reflecting our inner nature and our need for change.

Is there something in your life that you feel called to renounce or separate from?  Is God asking you to shed the skin of a spending habit, a thinking habit, a bodily habit, or a relationship habit?

Is there something in your life that you have been trying to change or dying to change, but that can only be changed with God’s help?  Tearing at and abusing yourself will not bring the deepest inward healing that God offers.

Sometimes it’s only in shedding our armor, renouncing the defenses that we’ve built against God, that we can accept love into our most broken places.

Dragon and Castle, canva image.

Choosing Love

Living in this world can cause us to build up a thick skin, a callousness, so that we aren’t so easily wounded.  Through his life, death, and resurrection, Christ has shown us that life is not about avoiding being wounded.  Life is about love.  And love is inherently risky.

Part of living into our Baptism is taking a stand against evil, not by attacking others, but by renouncing the things that hinder our ability to love.  We will always be tempted toward gold, warfare, and self-preservation.  We have become increasingly defensive, building up barriers against one another, building up armor against risks.  And yet, love is inherently risky, even for Jesus Christ.

Therein lies the adventure, the quest of the Christian life: following Jesus and becoming more like Him by choosing love over self.  That is how we renounce and stand against evil, by choosing love.

We profess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, because of the lasting power of what God has done for us.  But it is our choice to fully live into that baptism.  To live into our new life, our new adventure in the Spirit.

This is a life that learns to trust that the love of Christ is the single greatest power in the world.   And nothing compares to being covered in the love of Christ – not gold, not armor, not dragon scales.  It is a new way of living.

After Jesus is baptized in John’s Gospel, John says:

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Mtt. 3:12

Jesus is separating the wheat from the chaff.  The chaff is an outer layer, or protective covering that grows over the grain.  It’s like the skin, or husk, or scales that need to be shed before the grain can be used.  Jesus is very good at helping us to recover and rediscover our true center.

Remember your baptism and do not tempted to put on the old life, for you are covered in the love of God.

Remember your baptism and live fully into the new life that has been born in you, the new adventure in the Spirit.

Remember your baptism and put your whole trust in his grace and his love, for Jesus has gathered you to himself.

Remember your baptism, and do not be afraid to stand against evil.  For even though love is risky, Jesus Christ emptied himself and took on the form of a slave to face every risk on our behalf so that his love might become our love, and that love can set us free.

Remember your baptism.

To read more posts, visit my column here.  Check out my published writing in “Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership”.  If you are interested in contemplative leadership and are between the ages of 25-40, visit Shalem.org to learn about Crossing the Threshold: Contemplative Foundations for Emerging Leaders.


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