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Lost in the Woods Fairy Tales
Lost in the Woods Fairy Tales
The Lost Husbands: "The Snow Queen" Part 2 - Beware the Frozen Heart
Ever felt like cancelling in the middle of a quest? Gerda definitely has. It's hard to keep going and stay encouraged on mission when your own issues are weighing you down on the journey. Come sit in the garden with her as she digs down to the roots of her heart trouble and cultivates a renewed heart in The Snow Queen: Part 2.
**PG for thematic discussion**
Suttee
https://www.britannica.com/topic/suttee
What with all these flowers?
https://florgeous.com/buttercup-flower/
https://www.britannica.com/plant/buttercup
https://www.physichealth.uk/secret-life-snowdrops/
https://www.petalrepublic.com/hyacinth-flower/#7-what-regions-are-hyacinth-native-to
https://gardenandhappy.com/angel-trumpet-plant/
https://www.reference.com/world-view/tiger-lily-symbolize-2562253759a1dea8
The Snow Queen Text
https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheSnowQueen_e.html
The Lost Husbands: Episode 5
“The Snow Queen” Part 2: Beware the Frozen Heart
Welcome to Lost in the Woods Fairy Tales ™. I’m your host, Autumn Woods, and I’m so excited you’re here. We’re continuing our three-part episode arc of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.” Last time, we left Kay asleep at the feet of the Snow Queen, flying in her magic sleigh toward her icy kingdom. Unbeknownst to Kay, he is being taken there to rid him once and for all of the long-term damage inflicted on him by the devil’s evil mirror. And he won’t be able to free himself alone. Now, we join Gerda on her quest to find the one whom her heart loves and set him free.
So, let’s get lost, as we read Part 2 of (The Snow Queen).
You may be wondering why I didn’t abridge this section. I mean, what in the world do the stories of the flowers and the detour with the crows have to do with our main theme and storyline? A lot, actually. Don’t wander away from the campfire. We’re about to shed some light on the incredible treasure hidden in Part 2 of this story.
We return to Gerda anguishing at home over the loss of Kay. All winter long, there has been no word of him, and when spring comes, she ventures out alone to commiserate with nature over the loss of her friend. But when she tells the sun and the swallows that “Kay is dead and gone,” they tell her they don’t believe it. In 2 Corinthians 13:1, Paul states that "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." This is a direct reference back to the law given in Deuteronomy and reinforced by Jesus in Matthew 18, stating that the testimony of two or three witnesses is required to convict someone of a crime and or gently correct a believer’s wrong behavior. Having been gently corrected and told that Kay is alive from the mouths of two kinds of witnesses, Gerda begins to believe that it is true. She wants a third source to completely confirm it, and offers her prized red shoes to the river in exchange for answers.
Red shoes appear in another Andersen Story, and symbolize female sexuality and coming of age. From “The Wizard of Oz” film until now, they have come to represent untapped power and potential waiting to be unleashed. We know that red also stands for romance, blood, sanctification, passion, and danger, depending on the context in which it is mentioned. Gerda says that Kay has never seen her red shoes. This means that Kay has not seen Gerda in a romantic way or discovered that she has feelings for him deeper than friendship. She has modestly hidden them until now, not even truly exploring them herself until disaster and danger stir them up in her with renewed urgency. Our girl is growing up, and she is being called to womanhood quickly, for she must bravely traverse the world alone to execute her dangerous rescue mission and save her friend. She will need to be mature and discerning while never truly losing what is good about her childlike innocence. And that’s not an easy thing to do. It’s easier to be one thing or the other, a girl or a woman. When you are a combination of both, the world is an unkind place. You’re prone to experience suffering and people trying to take advantage of you when you work to keep your heart alive. But the Lord wants us to do this. God asks for a bride with a heart of flesh who is watching and waiting with an eye on the sky for His return; a warrior bride who battles the kingdom of darkness with His living Word and faithfully completes the good works He has given her to steward (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 6:12; Ephesians 2:10). Gerda is just such a bride, but she’s willing to surrender this new stage of her life and growth, even her untapped potential, to the river if it will return Kay to her.
The river sends the red shoes right back to her. It will not take them in exchange for Kay because it has not stolen him away, but also because Gerda’s power and new stage of life are rightfully hers to keep. They have been entrusted to her so that she can move forward and save Kay. Unconvinced, Gerda leaps into a boat resting further downstream and hurls her shoes even farther, unwittingly casting off the little vessel and propelling herself at top speed toward the beginning of her quest. While it is true that she does not catch her shoes the second time, it is interesting to note that they remain in the river, perpetually cleansed by its waters. She has set her mind to her quest and dedicated herself to the Holy Spirit for safekeeping. She will remain pure in her heart even when she is tested and tried in her new phase of life. Her passion, power, and growth are part of the river of life flowing out of her and spurring her on in her journey.
Like Thumbelina, she eventually takes joy in her trip down the river, allowing the sights and sounds of creation around her to soothe her spirit and restore her soul. However, as it always happens when we begin to live out our God-given destinies, testing comes. Gerda’s test will look much different than Kay’s. Because Kay is logical and eager to grow up too fast, he is given the opportunity to do it at warp speed and push his body to the point of death. Gerda, more emotionally minded, is not as eager to leave childhood behind, which is both a blessing and a curse. While her heart willingly holds on to the virtue and bravery God has woven through it, it also longs to have peace and stability, to go back to the way things were before her friend became cruel and the future uncertain. Her temptation will be to forsake womanhood and maturity in her walk, stopping her development and regressing into the safety of childhood.
Growing up girl, many of us found ourselves locked in this struggle earlier in life than generations before us. While guys go through a form of this, too, girls are forced to grow up fast as the outward changes in our bodies signal to the world that we are ready for things our minds and hearts aren’t prepared for yet. We have to be ready to defend ourselves before we even comprehend the full scope of what we’re fighting to protect. And it’s exhausting. It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to be a little girl again to escape the pressure and terror of having more asked or demanded or taken from you than you are willing and able to give. We hatch out different schemes to escape. Some turn to anorexia or bulimia to stave off or hide natural female development. Some festoon themselves with Disney memorabilia to remind themselves of the innocence and joy in which they once found safety and freedom. And some of us imprison our hearts in maximum security facilities so that no one can get close enough to hurt us again. We avoid the company of boys and men because we feel safer with women. There are big, gaping holes in all of these plans, and none of them are God-breathed. But He’ll allow us to take shelter under these fig leaves until the winter winds rip them to pieces and send us out into the cold to run to God and get our strength, security, and refuge from Him.
Gerda is about to get just such an opportunity. It isn’t long before she comes upon a strange cottage in a cherry orchard just off the riverbank, guarded by wooden soldiers. An old woman with a crooked walking stick and a sunhat painted with beautiful flowers catches sight of Gerda and helps her to the shore. Gerda is frightened of her at first, but soon realizes that she does not mean her harm, at least not directly. After telling the old woman her story, she joins her in the garden to meet the beautiful flowers there. Then she enters the cottage where she is greeted by a large bowl of cherries waiting for her on the table, which she happily pounces on. Cherries have a dual symbolism. They can represent reproduction, because of the flesh of the fruit being destroyed to make way for the seed and new growth. They can also represent innocence and eternal youth. In this case, Gerda is allowing herself to consume the illusion of eternal youth. She forgets her quest and the desire to bring Kay new life and permits herself to slip into the dreams of the childhood she had just begun to leave behind. While she eats the cherries, the old woman locks the door and begins brushing the memories of Kay out of Gerda’s hair.
The old woman, whom I grew up knowing as the Lady of Summer, though she is not called that here, is not deemed evil by Andersen, but she practices witchcraft and manipulation as skillfully as any villain. Her ill deeds stemming from good intentions render her the photo negative of the wicked stepmother. Rather than preventing the heroine from growing up out of fear that she will supplant or surpass her, the Lady of Summer is willing to derail Gerda’s quest and development in order to satisfy her desire to have a child. If the good mother did not die in all of the Lost Woman stories, it is possible that she could morph into the Lady of Summer because she doesn’t want her little girl to grow up and be torn apart by the dangers of the world. “Stay with me, the world is dark and wild. Stay a child while you can be a child with me,” sings the Witch in Sondheim’s Into the Woods. In order to ensure that Gerda will stay here and be happy with her, the old woman charms away all the roses from her garden with her crooked stick, forcing the healthy thriving blooms to conceal their ravishing beauty under the dead, black ground. This sabotage of the roses, which represent Gerda, her relationship with Christ, her love for Kay, and her development into a strong, beautiful woman is just as damaging as Cinderella’s stepfamily abusing her, stripping her of her position, and throwing the ashy gray bedgown over her glorious form. All of the actions I’ve just described are a form of attack against the heroine’s identity and her confidence as a capable daughter of God made in His image. When we are so preoccupied with battling or succumbing to these onslaughts, it’s easy to get distracted from the one Person on whom our eyes should be fixed. And that leaves us wide open for destruction. With all thoughts of God, deep, romantic love, purpose, adult female identity, and danger hidden away, Gerda is free to regress into the Lady of Summer’s darling daughter.
The desire to have a child or keep someone safe is not wrong, but a little danger is needed to bring out the best in us. If we are never tested, we will never grow, because trials produce perseverance and mature us in our faith (James 1:3-4). Overprotective parenting produces weak offspring who can’t defend themselves against the powers of darkness because they haven’t been taught how to fight. While there are times to pray for a hedge of protection, we have to recognize that it will be removed sometimes for testing, pruning, and growth, as it was in the case of Job. Job would never have been cured of his pride if he had not taken hit after hit and chosen to cling to God and be humbled by Him. I quit praying for protection from all harm and evil for those on my prayer list because it robs them of the opportunity for God to train their hands for war and their fingers for battle (Psalm 144:1). There are absolutely times when praying for protection is necessary, but instead of defaulting to that every time, I often pray that God will equip them with wisdom, knowledge, alertness, discernment, favor, the right words to say, the right actions to take and the boldness to speak and do those things at the right time.
Gerda cannot be allowed to forget what she has learned and abandon her post because she won’t be the only one doomed by her decision to hide in childhood. Kay, too, will suffer and diminish into nothing if she does not wake up and rescue him. She stays with the Lady of Summer many days, playing in the garden until sunset and curling up at night under a blue-violet quilt in the cottage. By the way, did you notice that the colors in the old woman’s house are the primary colors so often used in children’s toys? Red, yellow, blue. Simple. Easy to focus on. Undemanding of discernment. They do not challenge Gerda at all, but lull her into sweet dreams and carefree days. But her spirit is not asleep. It is restless, knowing that there is something missing in the garden. Something vital to her heart. She just can’t put her finger on it. One day, when she is staring at the old woman’s sunhat, Gerda’s eyes fix on the most beautifully painted flower on it: a rose. In her selfish zeal to banish them from the garden, the Lady of Summer had forgotten to charm the rose from her hat. Instantly, the spell is broken. Gerda dashes through the garden, searching desperately for roses, only to find that there are none. Grief-stricken, Gerda collapses to the ground, sobbing. As her tears water the earth, the roses rise from the ground, restored to full bloom by the river of life flowing from Gerda’s broken heart. She embraces them, remembering home, and Kay, and her quest to find him. This moment is a beautiful foreshadowing of Gerda’s final triumph at the end of the story. Rather than spoiling it, I will reiterate that the Holy Spirit in us is compared to streams of living water flowing from our hearts. Gerda’s tears come from grief stirred up in the wellspring of life, her heart. They baptize and cleanse what was buried, rededicating it to God and restoring it to abundant life. Her love, her sense of identity, her relationship with God, and her quest are redeemed by the sacrifice of her broken heart and humble spirit (Psalm 51:17).
Frantic at the thought that she has wasted so much time in hiding, she asks the roses if Kay is dead. Gently, they assure her that they have been underground with the dead, and Kay is not among them. Relieved, Gerda runs from flower to flower, hoping that one of them will have more news of Kay, but none of them can give her a straight answer. Only the roses are direct with her because they are her symbolic link to God and to Kay. In a sequence that would leave Lewis Carrol beaming at its beautiful complexity of symbolism tucked away in nonsense, each of the other flowers tells Gerda its own story. While at first glance they may seem unrelated to the main plot, they are in fact Andersen’s version of a dream device; metaphors to allow us to explore pieces of Gerda’s subconscious thoughts as she comes to terms with the changes she is facing and chooses whether or not to continue her quest.
The tiger lily tells the story of a Hindu woman forced to participate in the barbaric ritual of suttee, which means “chaste wife” or “good woman” in Sanskrit (Britannica.com). When her husband dies, a wife chooses or more likely, is compelled to be burned alive on the funeral pyre of her dead husband to show her purity and devotion to him. Because widows often received inheritance from their deceased husbands, they were cruelly “encouraged to commit suttee in order to make their inheritance available to other relatives” (Brittanica.com). In the eyes of her culture, what little value she has is terminated with the life of her spouse. Even though the woman in the tiger lily’s story submits to the ritual, her mind is on the man she truly loves who stands in the crowd watching her execution. The tiger lily asks if the woman’s love for him will outlast the flames consuming her body, or if it will perish with her.
This fairy tale illuminates the questions Gerda is posing to herself. Is her love for Kay stronger than death? Can she choose to be faithful to him for the boy he once was and the man he could be? Or will she allow her love to perish in the flames of his destruction and her regression? We are not told the color of the tiger lily’s petals, but if they are orange, they signal friendship, passion, and love stronger than death (reference.com). Gerda must choose to accept that when she finds Kay, he will not be the same. The friendship that was between them will either grow cold or blossom into something more. The old must pass away so that new life can begin. Although he is altered, her love for him must be constant, having endured trial by fire in order to be strong enough to break his chains and set him free.
Furthermore, Gerda is beginning to question her own value. Is she truly worth nothing because Kay does not esteem her anymore due to her emotional nature? Or is she like the woman on the funeral pyre, with more inside her to give than even death itself could consume? We know that she is, but she has to sort this out for herself. The danger is that if she comes to believe Kay’s assessment of her worth, she will be paralyzed and unable to help him because she is too busy nursing her wounds.
The trumpet flower tells of an old castle in the mountains rising high above a narrow path. Wow that’s loaded! We know that castles are fortresses, meant to safeguard those inside and keep enemies at bay. The woman in the castle is Gerda’s heart, as evidenced by Andersen comparing her to a rose. Until recently, Gerda has been very good at guarding her heart and preserving the wellsprings of life flowing out of her. (Proverbs 4:23). The castle is reached by a narrow path because “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). Gerda has found it. She loves the Lord and walks in His ways—she’s just coming out of a struggle at the moment. The castle is high on a mountain because mountains are difficult to climb, in keeping with Matthew 7:14, and they represent elevated thought and perspective, as mentioned in “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.” When God wanted to draw someone near to Him, He often made a mountain their meeting place. Gerda is wondering in the secret place of her pure heart if Kay will ever return to himself and to her on his own. Can’t she just be the childlike damsel waiting for his arrival and avoid the heartache of traveling all this way to find him only to be rejected?
Trumpet flowers are part of the deadly nightshade family. Ingesting them causes hallucinations, seizures, and eventually, death (gardenandhappy.com). This means that waiting on Kay is hopeless, poisonous, and deadly. She cannot sit and dream that he will be healed and come looking for her. She must go and hunt him down herself. If she does not, he will die and she will languish, living half a life, always wishing for what could have been. There is a time to wait on God and there is a time to obediently leap into action. There are consequences if you don’t. The victory you were meant to enjoy at first obedience may be given to someone else, as in the case of Barak and Jael in Judges 4.
The snowdrop’s story of the boy playing with his sisters on the swing while excluding the little black dog is absolutely heartbreaking. The boy is Kay, standing over logic and perfection, his new playmates, whom he finds absolutely irresistible. Notice that they are dressed in white like snowflakes and the Snow Queen. As he swings behind them, he blows soap bubbles, symbolizing the fragile and transient nature of his new idols. All things will pass away in the end except God and His Word (Matthew 24:35). Even the rules we lived by on earth will change as our eyes are opened even wider to the truth of God’s best will and His original design for so many of the things we have twisted. In the snowdrop’s story, Gerda is the little black dog. She has become the black sheep in Kay’s mind, nowhere near as perfect as the Snow Queen and all she represents. He and his idols tease Gerda, belittling her because she cannot climb up to their lofty mental plane free of “weak,” “useless” emotion and imperfection. The dog loses his temper in frustration, as Gerda is tempted to at the thought of Kay rejecting her. In the end, the swing breaks, representing Kay’s destruction if he continues to resist Gerda’s efforts to help him remember his godly identity.
Gerda just wants to be part of Kay’s world, but fears he won’t make room for her in his heart, even if she is able to reach him. The fun and joy they once shared, he will have with someone else, perhaps the Snow Queen. In Europe, snowdrops are the first sign of spring, a beacon of hope for change and joy after a long, dark winter. Snowdrops have been used in different medicines to treat memory loss, assuage grief and trauma, and prevent paralysis. Gerda’s hope is that Kay still treasures the memories of their time together as much as she does, and that they will revitalize him, encouraging him to come back to himself to enjoy life with her again, forsaking his love affair with cold logic for the warmth of her love. This hope encourages her to keep pressing on toward her goal and reaching him, but she is being paralyzed by her own fears even as she is deciding to move forward.
What should she do if he rejects her? Well, she could always return to the Lady of Summer. But this is not a life-giving decision, as evidenced by the hyacinth’s story of the three ghostly sisters who dance in the woods in red, blue, and white dresses before laying down in their coffins to die, floating down the river under a sparkling banner of fireflies. While it may be lovely for a while to dance like a child under the eyes of the Lady of Summer, Gerda’s passion, spirit, and purity, represented by the red, blue, and white dresses, will wither and die in their prime, becoming ghostly wraiths in the absence of testing and growth. Hyacinths themselves are mildly toxic, and represent love that continues after death. Gerda’s love, symbolized by the sparkling fireflies, the light in the darkness, may continue after her spiritual demise, but she will be powerless to free Kay if she gives in to the temptation to regress into childhood out of fear that she will fail in her quest.
But as we know, not everything about childhood is deadly. There are good things that we should take with us on the journey to maturity. As we discussed last time, God wants us to come to Him with the trust of children, imitating their ability to easily forgive and humbly receive instruction while practicing unconditional love. We see this in the story of the buttercup. It tells of the first day of spring, representing hope, with God’s bright sunshine bursting forth, illuminating a white house and a field of yellow flowers. A beautiful but poor maidservant visits her grandmother and gives her a loving kiss. The buttercup mentions that there is gold in the kiss, gold in the girl’s heart, her lips, her dreams, and the sunbeams surrounding them. This of course is a picture of Gerda and her grandmother. It is meant to reassure Gerda that the love and lessons she has received from her grandmother in childhood are treasures to take with her throughout her life and help her in her quest. Even though she is struggling with her decision, Gerda is pure, brave, and righteous, as evidenced by the gold around and inside her. She is passing the test, being refined through trial by fire and emerging purified, with the best parts of herself on full display, shining with God’s glory (Job 23:10; 1 Peter 1:6-7).
Buttercups are referred to as miniature suns because of their brilliant golden-yellow hue. They reflect the sun’s glory just as people are made to reflect God’s. They are also specially designed with a cup at the base of the petals where insects can hide away while drinking the buttercup’s nectar. God is often described as our refuge and hiding place. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. We get our nourishment and strength from abiding in Him, just as pollinating insects are refreshed by the nectar in the flowers’ cups and enabled to continue all the good works they were created to do. Gerda gains her strength from her reliance on God and His mercies. Because of this, Gerda’s warm heart will keep her alive during her arduous journey, and provide a safe place for Kay to come to if he is at all willing to be rescued.
Gerda is so frantic to hear specific news of Kay that all of these nuances and hidden messages are lost on her, with the exception of the buttercup’s story. Restored by the memory of her grandmother, Gerda determines that she will return to her and bring Kay home. Taking the roses at their word, she is about to flee the garden to search for him when she is caught by a narcissus. We all know what those stand for, and this one makes Gerda particularly uncomfortable. Like Beauty, she is not quite ready to see herself as a sensuous woman, and the narcissus’ insistence of focusing on self and feminine beauty disturbs her. God made feminine beauty to reflect an aspect of His glory. It is not wrong. Notice that the graceful dancer in the story is in white garments. She is pure and made exactly as she is meant to be. She cleans her clothes and exercises her muscles in dance. She stewards her gifts well. But then we get the idea that she worships them too much. The color saffron has occult and eastern religious significance, but none Biblically. The dancer—with whom the narcissus clearly identifies—ties a saffron ribbon around her throat to make her garments seem whiter. She is compromising her beliefs, mixing in occult influence in order to achieve a false idea of beauty and power.
Like Narcissus himself and the flower bearing his name, the dancer makes an idol of herself rather than deriving worth from God Who made her. This is made even clearer by the fact that the dancer is in a garret room, which you’ll remember represents the mind. Her antics in the room are a metaphor for complete self-obsession—she’s always on her mind. It is good that Gerda rejects this, but she must be careful not to despise female beauty and maturity altogether. We have hope that she will embrace both her inner and outer transformations and retain her good heart, because she conquers the desire to remain a child with the Lady of Summer and rejects the fear that she will use her femininity for evil by fleeing the scene altogether. Wrenching open the gate and stumbling into the forest, Gerda runs away as fast as she can and stops to rest on a rock. We know from “Katherine Crackernuts” that this refers to the house the wise man builds on the rock, Jesus, the cornerstone of the living temple of God (Luke 6:48; Ephesians 2: 19-22). Grounding herself once more in the truth, Gerda purges herself of the influence of the Lady of Summer’s magic, putting her childhood in its rightful place and recalling who God made her to be now and what she is meant to do. Looking around, Gerda realizes that while she was being tested, autumn has arrived. Wasting no more time, she plunges into the trees, letting herself get lost in the woods to find what she is looking for.
When she stops to rest again, she meets a kind crow who befriends her and attempts to help her find Kay. He thinks he may have seen him, but isn’t sure. The young man he is thinking of is very similar to the boy Gerda knew. This is because he is a foreshadowing of Kay as he will be, restored to his former glory. Gerda is afraid at first when the crow says that if the boy he has seen is Kay, he has forsaken her for a princess. He’s already ditched her for the Snow Queen so it isn’t hard to believe he would do something like that again. But then, she could forgive him anything if she could see him and know that he is well and happy.
The crow’s description of the prince and princess is in fact a foreshadowing of Kay and Gerda meeting each other as young adults. In the future, Kay, in his restored glory, will seek wisdom, not knowledge for knowledge’s sake. He will value Gerda again because her godly heart is a wellspring of wisdom. Furthermore, because he will recognize the value of the union of heart and head knowledge, rather than completely esteeming one over the other, Kay will be effective in all circumstances.
Notice that the princess despises the idea of marrying a man who looks good but has nothing to offer from his heart or his mind. She will not even provide meals for such men who are presumptuous enough to think that they can win her. There’s a reason most of us share her sentiments: our Creator does, too. He laments when people draw near to [Him] with their mouths and honor [Him] with their lips, but their hearts are far from [Him] (Matthew 15:8). God desires true love and relationship even more than we do. He’s not interested in a pharisaical courtship with a whitewashed tomb of a bride. He commands those who would pursue Him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). Gerda does love the Lord with everything in her, and that love pours over to Kay as well. In Christlike fashion, she has dedicated her life to rescuing him. Her hope is that once she finds him, he will have the same kind of love in his heart again.
The crow and his lady love help Gerda sneak into the palace to see if the prince is really Kay, only to discover that they are mistaken. The majestic couple is generous and kind, providing royal positions and benefits for the crows and provisions for Gerda, outfitting her well so that she may continue her quest lacking nothing. Initially, they offer to have her stay with them on holiday, but Gerda is wise enough to know that if she doesn’t keep moving, Kay will be lost. Befitting her spiritual state, they give her a golden sleigh to travel in, marked with the royal emblem. The crow travels the first part of the journey with her before returning home to the castle and the two tearfully bid goodbye.
You might wonder why they become attached to each other so quickly or what the point of this interlude is other than making sure Gerda has enough gear to travel north. Remember that Gerda has endured the abuses of Kay’s cruelty for months, and been subjected to manipulation nearly as long by someone she trusted to take care of her. That’s a lot of wear and tear on a heart, even one that loves as well as hers. In order to restore her soul and prepare her to continue onward, Gerda needs time with caring people who do good for others because it is in their nature to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave [us]” Ephesians 4:32. The easy friendship with the crows and loving acceptance of the prince and princess are what she has been missing in her own life for such a long time. Being with them helps her remember what she’s fighting for and encourages her not to give up.
As children of God, we are meant to encourage each other and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and spur one another on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). We are called to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of [us] may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). God knows that if we are not encouraged to keep fighting the good fight, we will crumble under the repeated blows dealt to us by the world. That’s why He commands us to speak life into our brothers and sisters. Even the strongest people who seem to be the best exhorters you know need the compassionate love described in these passages to restore their souls and prevent themselves from growing weary as they do the good works God made them to do. Refreshed by the kindness of her new friends, Gerda finds herself more prepared and determined than ever to complete her mission. We’ll ride with her to the frozen north in the conclusion of “The Snow Queen.”
Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. If you’d like to see what else is going on in the fairy tale forest or support the show, check out the Lost in the Woods Buy Me A Coffee Page. I’m Autumn Woods and I can’t wait to see you on the path next time you get Lost in the Woods.