FAIRYTALES: The Snow White Syndrome
I've inadvertently decided to do a short #FAIRYTALES blog series! I'm thoroughly enjoying planning it. I hope you'll enjoy reading it!
If you were anything like me growing up (or now!), you LOVE fairytales! Okay, maybe you don’t love them, but you’re likely familiar with them, at least the ones that made it to Disney Princess status. Recall Snow White. Whatever version you’ve seen, likely you recall the tale.
My Snow White storybook, cherished since childhood, starts off like this:
Once it was the middle of the winter, and the snowflakes fell from the sky like feathers. At a window with a frame of ebony a queen sat and sewed. And as she sewed and look out at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell in the snow. And in the white snow the red looked so beautiful that she thought to herself: “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in the window frame!”
And so she did.
A beautiful child with hair like ebony, skin like snow, and lips like blood was born and after beholding her lovely child, the queen died. The princess was left in the care of her doting father who, sooner or later, married another woman. Proud and haughty was she, and ever intent on being the most lovely, she had a magic mirror to feed her ambitions which, for years told her that she was, indeed, “the fairest of them all.” Until she wasn’t.
When Snow White became of age, the mirror began to tell a different truth, unpleasant to the ears of the Evil Queen:
Queen, thou art the fairest in this hall,
But Snow-White’s fairer than us all.
Enraged, the Queen arranged to have her huntsman take the girl into the woods and cut out her heart, lung, and liver, and bring the organs back as a token of the girl’s death. But the huntsman had pity on her, and let her go, sadly assuming the wild animals of the forest would see to her death in his stead. To fool the queen, he returned with the heart, lung, and liver of a wild boar, brought them to the queen, who - against all hope of human decency - consumed them, thinking she had consumed the organs of her rival.
And Snow White lived.
The wild beasts did not molest her, and she stumbled upon a little house where she took her respite, and fell asleep. She was awakened by the faces of seven little men, dwarves, who took her in and cared for her, as she happily remained with and cared for them. Learning of the Evil Queen’s designs on her, they cautioned her never to open the door or speak to strangers while they were away. They knew her wicked Stepmother would soon eventually discover that she lived, and make another attempt on her life.
And here comes, perhaps the most remembered part of Snow’s story.
One day while the dwarves were working hard in their mine, Snow White received a knock at the door from a little peddler woman with “lovely things for sale.” The peddler-woman displays her wares and eventually coaxes the runaway princess with her pretty laces. The woman offers to lace Snow White up properly and being, yet green in people’s intentions, she acquiesces. But it was the Evil Queen in disguise, and she laced Snow White up so well that she fell over as if she were dead.
The dwarves returned home, saved her, and warned her again, not to open the door for anyone while they were away.
But the enchanted mirror told the Queen when she returned to her lair:
Queen, thou art the fairest that I see,
But over the hills, where the seven dwarfs dwell,
Snow-White is still alive and well,
And there is none as fair as she.
Upon discovering that her attempts had failed again, she schemes and comes up with another plan. This time, she visits the dwarves’ house in the guise of another peddler-woman. Bearing a comb that had been entrenched in poisonous magic, she entices the young, naive princess with ebony locks, that she must have her hair combed properly. Something the runaway princess had likely been used to in her previous life. And so the Evil Queen has her chance.
But the dwarves returned home, saved her, and warned her again, not to open the door for anyone while they were away.
And once again, the Queen discovers her failure.
Queen, thou art the fairest that I see,
But over the hills, where the seven dwarfs dwell,
Snow-White is still alive and well,
And there is none as fair as she.
Fuming fires from deepest hell, the Queen works her dark craft to create one final attempt on her innocent stepdaughter’s life. And this is the attempt we recall best because it was the most successful.
The Evil Queen fashions a poisoned apple, dons the attire of a farmer’s wife (or hag, depending on which version you refer to), and she, again, makes the trek to the dwarves’ hideaway.
This time, Snow White does not let the woman in, And she did not want the apple offered to per, fearing more poison. But the woman calls her bluff, and has only made half of the apple poisoned, and eats the unpoisoned half herself, demonstrating to Snow White that there is seemingly no danger. And being enticed by the shining, red half of the apple, Snow White takes the apple, bites, and dies.
And her mirror tells the Queen no lies:
Queen, thou art the fairest of us all.
And she rested in her evil.
But thankfully, “that’s not how the story ends!” We know that while seemingly in her glass-encased resting place, her one true love - a prince - appeared and gave her the remedy - love’s true kiss, and she awoke from her sleep, married the prince, and lived happily ever after. And yes, the evil queen was punished unto death.
Now that’s a lovely, albeit semi-barbaric story, especially if you read one of the older, Grimm-er versions, lol, but now we come to our point.
Are You Like Snow White?
Typically, it would be easy to point the finger at the Evil Queen, but I want to talk about Snow White. What we have here is a case of same intent, new methods. Just like the devil.
Just think about it: the Evil Queen came to Snow in not one, not two, but three forms (four if you include her original attempt via the Huntsman).
Now while most of us are not actually attacked by the devil himself, we are often attacked by his emissaries. And like the Evil Queen, the enemy of our souls has one intent - to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).
God told Cain, “sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it,” (Gen. 4:7). What does this mean? It means that sin, the enemy, is always lying in wait to snare us, trip us up. But it also means that you have a choice: you don’t have to fall victim to the snare of sin. And yet, how many of us do?
Like Snow White, we say, “Oh, well, it’s not the same person! They won’t treat me like [insert name] did.” But they have the same spirit.
We say, “I won’t fall into alcoholism again. I’ll be stronger next time!” But you don’t take the time to build up your spirit-man up or mortify your flesh, so you fall anyway.
Same temptation, same sin, same end-goal, new mask, new deception. How do we deal?
Dealing with the Devil
Discernment is the key.
Jesus said, “for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me,” (John 14:30). How did He accomplish this? Discernment.
To be fair, Jesus had the advantage of knowing that his Tempter was the devil himself, but twice when the devil came to tempt Him, Jesus was able not only to discern each temptation, but to discern the appropriate answer to each one: “It is written” (Luke 4:1-13).
One thing we know is that with every temptation is a way of escape.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (I Corinthians 10:13)
For many of you, the “way out” is to not go that way at all. Your response should be what Snow White’s should have been: DON’T OPEN THE DOOR. DON’T OPEN THE WINDOW. DON’T OPEN ANYTHING! Shut the opportunity all the way down. Don’t allow the temptation an opportunity to even be entertained, and you’ll end it before it even gets good and started.
The enemy, just like that old Evil Queen is always going to keep coming with his plots and ploys. But the good news is, if you exercise and employ discernment, then you can recognize the enemy and thus, overcome him every time!
