Locusts and Honey

A glass of shiraz on my left, a wedge of old cheddar and a pint of blueberries on my right -- good choral music streaming from the laptop speakers and finally, in conversation with you.
Life is good.
Do you understand the title of this post?

Yes. You remembered! I've set out to tell you about an amazing presentation put forward by the wild John the Baptist type I wrote of earlier.

Malcolm Guite is the preacher poet that conducts Catherines Poetry Workshop.
He chose this beautiful title: Be Ye Transformed...the Way of personal transformation in the writings of C.S. Lewis and based it on 1 John 3: 1,2 which says:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
This is a good summary of the conference theme: Imago Dei? No question about it!

Now I shall attempt to summarize his message using the hastily scribbled notes in my program.
Malcolm gets into this idea of transformation by bringing us to the book Voyage of the Dawn
Treader from the Chronicles. This book in particular is often cited as a personal favourite and it's easy to see why when you hear the story.
Eustace is a self-centered boy who goes his own way in search of treasure. He finds a great heap of it in a mountainous cave and in his greedy exhilaration flops atop it and falls asleep. He wakes up a dragon. He discovers too late, he has trespassed into the dragons lair and become one with them. He did not bargain for that per se, but since he has "made his bed, he must now lie in it!"
Life as a dragon is a lonely one. Eustace soon finds himself friendless, his crusty ugly exterior scaring everyone off before a word is spoken - if he could speak.
He meets up with Aslan who hears his plea for help and accompanies him to a lake -- a lake he must be baptized in for deliverance. But first he is told to undress, to peel away the hordes of old adamisk layers acquired in his life as a wandering dragon.
Despite many attempts to do this on his own (for Eustace had not dealt severely enough yet with his pride) it could not be done -- at least not without excruciating pain.
In agonizing defeat he concedes to lying down beside the lake and in terror, he submits himself to the claws of Aslan to remove the dragonish scales of his "person".
Through great pain, his exterior is finally shed and Eustace, with his tender sensitive skin follows Aslan into the water where his healing slowly takes place and his little boy-self emerges once more.
The story goes on to show us a much different Eustace - not perfect and not yet without fault and weakness, but one who seems far more concentrated on the well-being of others and much less concerned for his own.
To the Christ follower, the parallels are obvious.
It is a matter of trust and obey to submit to the claws of Aslan -- in the hope of removing our dragonish exterior to become the people we were created to be.
Transformation is the work of Jesus.
We cannot lose the layers on our own, tho' we waste much energy and many a year trying.
Furthermore, it will never be done in isolation but only in communion with Aslan.

*sigh* It's time to go home and read the Chronicles over again.