Do You Know My Story? Part 1 Esther
Ruth Kennedy 
March 07, 2024
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Over the next four weeks we are going to hear from four biblical Leapers! Four people who took a leap of faith with their community. In this first part Ruth Kennedy writes from the perspective of Esther. (You can read more about Esther in the Bible in the Book of Esther!)
Do you know my story? Do you know why we are celebrating how God incredibly saved my precious community?
If you had seen me sometime ago you would have seen a different story. You would have heard wailing and fear. You would have felt the tears drop on your hand if you held it against my cheek, or my body heave in silent sobs had you held me. You would have smelt the pungent fragrances and perfumes I was bathed in as preparation to meet the King.
I was ripped away from all those whom I loved, my entire community, and taken to the palace, for the King was looking for a new Queen. Mordecai reminded me to be strong, that the Lord God of Israel was with me, that they were just over the wall.
Some of my friends were also taken and we eventually found ourselves giggling at the dresses we were to wear. A couple were excited and honoured to have been selected for the King’s harem instead of living in Susa. Some were so homesick. But what choice did we have? I thought best to try and encourage them as I found God encouraging me every new morning. I remembered Yahweh’s promises to Moses when our ancestors were slaves in Egypt:
‘I am the Lord. I’ll bring you out from Egyptian forced labor. I’ll rescue you from your slavery to them. I’ll set you free with great power and with momentous events of justice. I’ll take you as my own people and I’ll be God to you.’
And I did not fear.
I rallied the women as best as I could with the faithfulness of God and they encouraged me with their kindness. We prayed together and did not worship the Persian gods and mythical creatures that were around the palace compound. God gave us strength through each other. And I found myself favoured where I was.
I needed these other women, I needed to hear the messages from Mordecai, I needed them because it reminded me, I was not on my own. I looked at a rain shower one day and God said to me:
‘See how the rain falls? I never send just one drop, the life-giving water comes in droplets and clusters, they fall one with each other. They are not created in isolation. Neither are you, my child. A deluge from heaven is coming and you are in amongst all the raindrops.’
Realising that however God was working out our rescue from the oppression of the Persians, however we were to be the wondrous displays of God's glory in Susa, it would take our community working together and with God to see transformation. I may not have been even of marital age when I realised this, but Mordecai and the faithful community I grew up with immersed me in the ways of God from a young age, and I found comfort in the comfort of God without my parents. I found love in those God had set around me, and I loved them with all my heart.
When Hamaan’s genocidal plans were made known to me, I was petrified at first! Another powerful and influential man, who just decided on people’s lives all the time and now on my friends, me — the king’s chosen new Queen. On God’s people. And then I had a fire of righteous anger in my belly. That deluge of rain God spoke of was coming. And although it was only me who put on the Queen’s robes and stood in the inner court of the King with him sitting on his throne in front of me, I did so with all the people of Susa behind me, all of heavenly armies of angels around me and the power of the Almighty God on me. Hamaan and evil had no chance against us.
So today we dance and sing and feast, not to remember the fight to live but how God saved us again, we rejoice for peace and truth at this festival called Purim. We celebrate the beautiful gift of community God has given us, and live diligently to nurture and protect it, now and forevermore. May the rain fall.
That is God’s story in us.
Ruth Kennedy
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