For such a time as this

Kitty Williams, Director of Music Ministries

Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther 4:14b

That’s our verse for the day??? It’s a question, not a commandment.

Have you ever had that kind of memory verse? Well in all my years, this was the first.

Last week, First United Methodist Garland went rogue!

Even though published Vacation Bible School (VBS) materials are wonderful and fun, our VBS leaders took the leap of writing our own curriculum.

(We have some very talented and inspired people here!)

The Bible story, music, art, science and more were catered to our prescribed scripture topics under a rainbow of hands theme called Blessed to be a Blessing.

Bible school week was wonderful! Our children are precious.

I was privileged to teach with the Bible story team.

Brandi Bender paraphrased the stories for the children (and the rest of us who like things simplified.) Her work was superb!

On Tuesday of VBS, we studied Esther. She was a beautiful Jewish woman who became queen to the Persian king Xerxes.

If you read the whole book of Esther, you might think this is the basis for a soap opera.

For the children, we kept to the ‘gold nuggets’ of the story.

Long-story-short:

The king had great affection for Esther because of her beauty and kindness. There were actually two stories within this story.

1) Once Esther’s cousin Mordecai (who was also her adoptive father) learned the plot of two servants to kill the king.

Mordecai sent a message to Esther. She then told the king. The plot was spoiled!

2) Another time, a bad guy, Haman, was promoted to the highest ranking official.

This honor went to his head and he ordered that everyone should bow down to him.

Mordecai refused to bow because he only bowed to God.

Haman got angry and ordered that all Jews in the kingdom be killed.

Mordecai sent a message to Esther and asked her to influence King Xerxes to stop this action.

Esther was in a dilemma because she wasn’t supposed to approach the king unless he called for her.

(This is where the verse comes!)

Mordecai said to her:

“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

So Esther prayed, and God gave her the strength to talk with the king.

Not only were the Jewish people saved, but Mordecai was promoted to the highest ranking official.

This was a period in human history when women were barely valued as human.

Yet through her humility and bravery, Esther’s actions saved a nation.

She set aright the situation for those who could not defend themselves.

When we find ourselves in a difficult state of affairs, preferring to read a book, watch a movie or play a computer game to avoid being in any controversy, perhaps we should consider Mordecai’s question:

Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?