Our hurts and pains can make us monsters. But no matter how intense, there is always hope.

In Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the 5th book of the Chronicles of Narnia saga), C.S. Lewis describes this in young Eustace Clarence Scrubb—an arrogant, selfish, and an all-around horrible person to be around.

While out to sea, the ship Eustace is on stops at an uncharted island where he wanders away from his responsibility, finds a treasure trove and puts on a magical bracelet...which turns him into a dragon.

Eustace as a dragon with the golden bracelet

After the initial joys of flying and freedom, Eustace regrets the monster he's become (in more ways than one), and Aslan (the character who represents Jesus in the books) promptly finds him and beckons him bathe in a pool, which he does:

"So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling."

But it wasn't over, he was still a dragon:

"Then the lion said—but I don't know if it spoke–you will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it."

"The very first tear he made was so deep and I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off."

Almost there:

"And there was I as 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 from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again."

Eustace humbled himself and did what he needed to do, ultimately letting Aslan heal him, but that didn't mean he was perfect:

"It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that "from that time forth Eustace was a different boy." To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun."

May we all trust Jesus thus; for though we all may've been monsters (and may still be at times), we need not. No matter how unlikely it seems, we too can be healed.