esther's grace

Esther 4:14 Living Bible14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, God will deliver the Jews from some other source, but you and your relatives will die; what’s more, who can say but that God has brought you into the palace for just such a time as this?”

Heroes don’t always wear capes. In fact, heroes are unlikely people who don’t sign up to be a part of someone else’s story. We live in a world where everyone wants to be seen, known, and heard. In some ways, we are searching for significance. Some think if they can get into the right connections, the right social group, and be seen next to a celebrity, then they are guaranteed the road to success. Unfortunately, we live in a world of clout chasers. I talked about how people want to manipulate themselves into positions with great men or women of God in my last book, Haman’s Plot.
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True heroes don’t want to be seen or known; they find themselves in circumstances that they never anticipated, having to make choices that they never thought they’d have to make in an instant. True heroes are born in unlikely circumstances. What appears to them to be a mere coincidence is really God’s divine order.

Esther was such a hero. She didn’t go seeking fame, fortune, or a rich husband. Esther was simply being obedient to her cousin Mordecai. Esther represents a woman who has been abandoned, orphaned, but chosen. The wonderful thing I love about God is that He doesn’t choose like man. He doesn’t choose the one everyone is looking at. He chooses the abandoned, the broken, the one whose life story is not about being the best but being the least. The one who is counted out by man but chosen by God.

I love the story of Esther because she is me. I can relate to her, and I am sure you picked up this book because her story relates to you as well. I have been shunned and abandoned by people who said they loved me. I have been overlooked and underestimated all my life. I was the quiet girl that everyone rejected, and no one saw. I was the one who felt unloved. But God saw me.

Over a year ago, the sadness of my own abandonment got to me. With tears in my eyes, I said to God, “I feel like I have been rejected by people all my life.” I was always too quiet, too reserved, not enough of something, or too much of something. I was given counsel that said, “Maybe you should talk more or not be so quiet.” I never understood what’s so wrong with being quiet. Why do I need to talk more? More importantly, why is that your problem when it is not mine? I was and still am the girl who loved to read books and study. I am the classic nerd, glasses and all. Yet all my life, I was made to feel by other people that something was wrong. When you are so quiet, people don’t see you; they see right through you.
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Nevertheless, like Esther, I am not forsaken or forgotten by God. God has created us Esther’s in secret places to rule kingdoms. In my alone time, God responded to my pain. He said, “Samaria I have not rejected you; I have chosen you. Because I have chosen you, I have concealed you.” When you are concealed, you are hidden, and you won’t be revealed until God’s appointed time for your unveiling. Your time of obscurity is a time of preparation and process. Don’t despise your hidden season.
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This book is to encourage all the Esther’s out there. Don’t give up. Don’t let the pain of being overlooked cause you to question God’s sovereignty.

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