Last night was our second get together for Two Or Three. A group of women brave enough to discover who they are and who they were meant to be through unconventional means. Looking at familiar things and setting those stories against our own to learn about our hurts, our dysfunctions and the hope that can save us from both.
We are looking at Fairy Tale Princesses (I know, I know…sounds lame, but stick with me here…), comparing them to female characters in the bible (okay, now it’s getting a little more interesting, right?) and finally holding their stories up to our own to see what we can learn from their experiences. We look at how similar our choices are (by analogy) and the impact.
So here’s our first example from last night…
I passed out apples to everyone. They were all asked to take one bite and describe it in one word. The words SWEET, TART, JUICY were all used. But not one person used the word “FILLING” to describe their bite of the apple.
We talked about three types of apples:
1. The Poisoned Apple
2. The Forbidden Apple
3. The Good, But Misplaced, Apple
And we talked about three different women:
1. Snow White
2. Eve
3. Us
We started by reading aloud the story of SNOW WHITE. While we read the whole thing, to shorten things up I will just share part of it here:
The seven little men said, “You can live here and tend to the house while we’re down the mine. Don’t worry about your stepmother leaving you in the forest. We love you and we’ll take care of you!” Snow White gratefully accepted their hospitality, and next morning the dwarfs set off for work. But they warned Snow White not to open the door to strangers….
Disguising herself as an old peasant woman, the stepmother put a poisoned apple with the others in her basket. Then, taking the quickest way into the forest, she crossed the swamp at the edge of the trees. She reached the bank unseen, just as Snow White stood waving goodbye to the seven dwarfs on their way to the mine.
Snow White was in the kitchen when she heard the sound at the door: KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Who’s there?” she called suspiciously, remembering the dwarfs advice.
“I’m an old peasant woman selling apples,” came the reply.
“I don’t need any apples, thank you,” she replied.
“But they are beautiful apples and ever so juicy!” said the velvety voice from outside the door.
“I’m not supposed to open the door to anyone,” said the little girl, who was reluctant to disobey her friends.
“And quite right too! Good girl! If you promised not to open up to strangers, then of course you can’t buy. You are a good girl indeed!” Then the old woman went on.
“And as a reward for being good, I’m going to make you a gift of one of my apples!” Without a further thought, Snow White opened the door just a tiny crack, to take the apple.
“There! Now isn’t that a nice apple?” Snow White bit into the fruit, and as she did, fell to the ground in a faint: the effect of the terrible poison left her lifeless…
Snow White had just had a conversation with the Dwarves about not opening the door for strangers. She knew they cared for her and only wanted what was best for her. So why did she ignore their words and open the door for this woman?
There are probably multiple reasons, but bottom line, she was deceived. The giver of the apple looked harmless. The apple didn’t LOOK poisonous. It was shiny and red and delicious looking. She was enticed by something that was outside (literally) the bounds of the instructions she’d been given. Instructions given for her safety and well being. She opened the door, took the bite and fell to the ground.
She gave up her true life for something that left her essentially dead. The apple didn’t fulfill her. It POISONED her.
What did she need? She needed a hero. Her prince charming. She needed his rescue, his kiss of life.
And what did that kiss give her? Life. His kingdom. Happily ever after.
And what about EVE?
We read Genesis chapter 3 – (again, shortened here) –
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Hmmmm….
Like Snow White, Eve had just had a conversation with God about this tree. It’s fruit was off limits. She knew God’s love for her. She walked in the garden with him every day, for Pete’s sake. She knew she could trust His instructions. He had given her and her hubby everything possible, including a perfect relationship with Himself. But, for her own protection, God told her to not eat the fruit from that tree. He knew the pain, the brokenness, the eventual death that eating it would cause. He knew it would damage the perfect relationship that they shared.
But the serpent, like the wicked queen in Snow White’s case, deceived Eve. Once again, she was enticed by the beauty of the fruit, by the thought of it’s taste, by the lie that it would fill her up. She ignored the instructions given in love, “opened the door”, and took a bite. And just like Snow White, death was the result. Eventual physical death. Death of a perfect relationship with God (she now hid herself from Him). Banishment from Paradise. And spiritual death not just for herself, but for all mankind.
What did she need? A hero. A Savior. Jesus.
And what did her Hero give her? Life. His kingdom. And even more than a happily ever after. He gave her eternity!]
So what about us? We talked about what the different types of apples look like for us as women:
Poisoned Apples: Toxic relationships, fear, anxiety, lies that we believe about ourselves, drugs, alcoholism, anger, bitterness. Every bite takes the life right out of us. The more bites we take, the more we die a little bit every day. The thing that once deceived and grabbed our hearts is now killing us.
Forbidden Apples: The more obvious things that God has specifically instructed us against but look so good to our temporal, instant gratification eyes. Lying, Stealing, Cheating, Gossiping, Adultery, Greed. The things that look like a quick fix for our hungry souls but that will only leave us a unfulfilled and hurting.
The Good, but Misplaced Apples: These are the good things in life that we are welcome to enjoy but have become our source of identity, security and focus. Things like money, our spouse, our children, our reputation, our jobs, our homes, our friends, our belongings, our status. If any of these things is what we live for, what we put our trust and hope in, then they Misplaced Apples. Good, but out of sequence. And though they may fulfill for a time, all of those things will at some point come to an end and our source of nourishment is then cut off. Which will eventually “kill” us.
Why do we reach for apples, bad OR good, to find fulfillment, to satisfy, to mask our pain? Because like Snow White and Eve, we’ve been deceived. We’ve believed the lie that the apple holds the answer. Though it’s contrary to the loving instructions we’ve been given, it looks like it will do the job. Like Eve, it appears to be “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” – we think it will feed our body, soul and mind. But somehow our “hunger” always returns.
BUT……
What if we give our POISONOUS apples to God to let Him dispose of them? What if we hand over our FORBIDDEN apples and let Him put them back where they belong? And what if we even take our GOOD apples and let Him peel, slice and doctor them up as He sees fit?
At this point, I brought out some homemade Apple Crisp. Luscious Apple Crisp with Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce!
It started with good apples. The kind they had just taken a bite of. Good but ultimately not filling.
The recipe added spice, sweetness, richness.
It’s what God does with the good apples of our lives if we let Him. He makes them into something more. But He can’t use poisoned apples. He won’t use forbidden apples. And even the good apples need to be placed in His hands before something more filling can be made of them.
Bottom Line? Anything less than God Himself is just an apple. But if we hand our apples over, He’ll make something of them we never even imagined…
