Grumpy: redeemed.

The truth. Unfiltered.  That’s what children are for. We were reading about charming Snow White, when a little finger unexpectedly smashed the nose of a fat dwarf: “That’s you, Mamma!” He was pointing to Grumpy.

Bewildered for a second, I absurdly tried to justify his observation: “Ahhh, I look like a short, fat little man to him!  How cute! How funny. How...improbable.” He yanked off my feebly applied band-aid and twisted the vorple blade deeper: “Your face looks exactly like his – so grumpy.” Gulp…How to respond to the stark truth handed to you by a dirty little honest hand… My mind desperately grabbed for a softer label: Grumpy? No, it's called stress; grief; hormones; allergies; headaches...

But from somewhere beside me another small voice came to the rescue: “Oh no, that’s not right!  This is mamma!” The sweet, merciful, tender, kind, patient, generous, forgiving, rescuing, redeeming  finger was pointing to the ever-gentle Snow White.  

No she doesn’t!

Yes she does!

NO she doesn’t!

Yes she does!!

  Under the cover of their bantering, I took a personal time-out to process the evidence laid before me: The scarlet of my grumpiness (or whatever lurks at the root of it) is real and it stains.   Yet the white of an imputed coat of Righteousness changes not only my appearance but also my name: 

Though scarlet is thine grumpy heart,

Snow White thou in Jesus art.

The unfiltered truth of the gospel exposed by little boys. 

"Simul justus et peccator" - Martin Luther