For Such a Time as This

There was a girl named Esther. And do you know what? She was a queen.

Not long before, she had been an orphan girl, far from her homeland, living in the great kingdom of Persia with her uncle Mordecai. Now she lived in a grand palace, with soft beds and golden cups and servants who brought her anything she wanted. She was safe there. The cold and the danger of the world could not reach her behind those high, strong walls.

But outside the walls, her people were in terrible trouble.

A wicked man named Haman had whispered a lie to the king, and now a law was written. A law that said all of Esther's people, every one of them, were to be destroyed. Mordecai stood at the palace gate in torn clothes, weeping. He sent her a message.

"You must go to the king. You must beg him to save your people."

But one thing made Esther's heart pound. No one, not even the queen, was allowed to walk into the king's room unless he called for them first. If you went without being called, you could be killed. Just like that.

And the king had not called for Esther in a long, long time.

She could stay silent. She could stay in her beautiful, safe room and say nothing, and maybe no one would even know she was one of them. It would be so much easier. Doing the right thing was frightening, and doing nothing felt so much warmer and softer.

Mordecai sent one more message, the kind you never forget.

"Do not think you will be safe just because you live in the palace. Who knows? Maybe you were made a queen for exactly this moment. For such a time as this."

Esther sat very still.

Then she sent her answer back. "Tell our people to pray for me. And I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I die, I die."

If I die, I die. She would leave her safe room. She would walk down the long hall toward the throne, not knowing if she would live. The queen, the safest one of all, would lay down her safety and walk the low and dangerous road, so that her people, who could not save themselves, could live.

That is greatness turned upside down: not grabbing for your life, but giving it away.

Hold that picture in your heart. One day, far in the future, Another would walk a road like that one. Not into a palace, but up a hill. A greater King, who left the safety of heaven and walked straight toward a cross, for people who could never rescue themselves.

Esther whispered, "If I die, I die," and was brave for one night. The King who was coming would say, "I lay my life down," and be brave for the whole world.

But first, Esther had to walk down that long hall. And far across the city, a wicked man was about to build something tall and terrible.