She ran as fast as her small feet would carry her.  The wicked queen had just sent someone to kill her.  Snow White didn’t understand.  She had done nothing to deserve such hatred from this woman.  All she ever did was work hard and try to please the queen.  And now a man stood before Snow White saying that he just couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t kill the sweet girl.  So he told her to run deep, deep into the woods so that she would not be found out and the queen would think her dead.

And so she ran.  The forest was dense and made it difficult to move quickly.  She was exhausted, but she ran on.  Darkness set in and so did her fear.  The branches looked like witch’s fingers reaching out to grab her.  The sounds of the creatures around her terrified her. As night melted into morning, her pace had changed to a walk.  Her head was spinning with what her reality had become. She was born to be a princess.  How had things come to this?  She tried to think about her Prince.  The Prince she knew would one day come and take her to a kingdom far, far away.  To love her and give her the life she had dreamed of all her life.  “One day, my Prince will come….” she hummed to herself as she dodged bushes and jumped over logs.

And just when she didn’t think she could possibly take another step, she saw it.  A small house in the distance.  A new burst of energy took over and she hurried to the small retreat, eager to have some reprieve.  Out of breath, she knocked on the front door.  When no one answered, she turned the handle to let herself in.  What she saw didn’t make sense.  Everything was miniature.  Short tables with small chairs.  Multiple tiny beds.  As if this house was occupied by only children.  And it was filthy.  She grabbed a broom and began to sweep the floor. Then she washed the stack of dirty dishes piled up. She washed windows and made beds and straightened up shelves.  She could have worked all day.  But she was overcome with exhaustion and had to lie down.  But where?  There was no bed big enough.  So she brought several beds together and collapsed into a deep sleep across them.  She dreamed sweet dreams of her Prince and one day.

Hours later, seven little men were coming home from work.  Little did they know what awaited them.  They opened the door to their house.  Something wasn’t right.  Things weren’t where they left them, including the dirt.  They walked in, mouths wide open, wondering what kind of magic had taken place.  The place sparkled.  How had this happened?

They hurried upstairs to see what might be there.  And there was their answer – sprawled across their seven little beds was a beautiful girl, sound asleep.  They tried to be quiet, but their curiosity and excited whispering awoke Snow White and she sat up to find 14 eyes of 7 strange men staring at her.  At first she felt afraid, then ashamed that she had made herself so at home here in their house.  But she had them at hello, and soon they were all talking and asking her questions and smiling.  And though she knew this was not her residence, they did their best to make her feel at home.

Days and weeks passed.  She became a mother of sorts to the dwarfs.  She cooked and cleaned and cared for them.  They were her friends.  And though they were not like her, she grew to love and appreciate all of them and their little idiosyncrasies.  Grumpy and his gruff exterior.  Happy with his positive attitude.  Dopey with his childlike look at life.  Doc, the bossy one.  Sneezy and his sensitivity.  Sleepy, the laid back one. Bashful and his shy demeanor.  Seven of them.  The perfect number to teach her how to relate to seven different types of people.

She worked her heart out for them every day while they were at work.  And when they came home she listened and talked and lived life with them.  She loved them dearly.  But she knew she could not live with them forever.  She knew her Prince would come and take her to her true home.  The home she had been dreaming of since she was a little girl.  And she would truly be the princess she was meant to be. And as she swept and cleaned and washed each day, she sang her song.  Sometimes in her heart and sometimes out loud…”One day my Prince will come…”

On one such day she was scrubbing some dishes and humming her little tune.  She looked up to see an old woman looking at her through the window.  She was ugly and deformed, but she was offering something to Snow White and Snow White felt compelled to take it.  It was a rosy, delicious looking apple, shiny and perfectly round.  And the woman smiled a gnarly, toothless grin, when the girl sunk her teeth into the delectable piece of fruit.  And as soon as the bite was taken, Snow White fell to the floor in a heap.  The old woman (really the wicked queen in disguise) laughed an evil laugh and shuffled away, leaving the girl for dead.

The dwarfs came home as usual, after a long day at work.  They came through the door and gasped as they saw their friend on the floor, pale and looking as if life had left her.  They tried to wake her but couldn’t.  Their hearts were broken.  They built her bed of sorts and placed her in it, hoping that soon she would come out of her deep sleep and join their lives once again.

They remembered the song that Snow White would sing – “one day my Prince will come”, and they were saddened to realize that her dream had not come true.  Weeks and months passed, and they began to lose hope of their sweet friend’s recovery.

But one day they heard the sound of horses’ hooves coming their direction.  They looked out the window to see a man coming towards them, riding a white horse.  And not just any man.  He looked to be a Prince.  Could he be the one?  But he was too late.  As he approached the girl lying on her bed, it didn’t seem to phase him that she lie there seemingly lifeless and still.  It was as if this is why he came, in fact.  He kneeled down, taking the girl’s head in his hands and gently kissed her sleeping lips.  The dwarfs held their breath to see what would happen next.

Suddenly, Snow White opened her eyes.  And the first thing she saw was they eyes of her beloved Prince.  The Prince she had waited for and dreamt of and sang about her entire life.  The little men cheered.  The Prince smiled, tears streaming down his face.  And Snow White grinned from ear to ear as he picked her up in his arms and carried her to his horse, to take her to the land she was made for, the life she was meant to live, forever and ever…happily ever after…

***The story of Snow White.  I’d never really thought about it as an allegory before today.  But it kinda is.  Snow White.  The daughter of a King.  Left to live in a world she didn’t belong in – where she was mistreated, misunderstood and never really found her niche.  She endured fear and pain and hatred.  She knew she was a princess and that her prince would come, but circumstances seemed to mock that idea.  She lived with people that she served and loved and cared for, but they could not fully understand her or her idea that a prince would come for her. She learned and served where she was at, but never stopped dreaming. She experienced temptation, and succumbed to it and suffered it’s consequences.  And it would seem that this would thwart her dream to meet her prince and be swept away.  But it was at the end of her life that her prince came and found her.  It was the right time.  He hadn’t forgotten.  And he whisked her away to a place where she would be the princess she was meant to be.  It was one day.  And her prince had come…

Jesus is coming back to take us where we belong.  One day we will spend eternity with Him.  But he is also ready to meet us right where we are, right here,  when we come to the end of ourselves in this life and trust in our Prince to kiss us with His life and breathe life into us.  Today is our day…our Prince has come…