So I have been leading a women's Bible study on Wednesday night at our church. I have so enjoyed going deeper into the amazing book of Esther. It is the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention the name of God. Yet his scarlet thread runs so deeply through it. I never thought about what it would have been like for her to be a Jewish orphan girl among all the harem of King Xerxes. Here is a girl who grew up with her uncle and never knew the love of a father or had a mother to teach her about beauty. Yet she enters 12 months of preparations to appear before this king and she manages to win the favor of everyone she came in contact with. It is so rare for someone to connect with leaders and dignitaries and still have the approval of the women she lived with. I bet she was pretty cool to be around. She finally gets her chance to impress the King and could have chose diamonds, gold, silver, fabrics and she only wears what was recommended by the leader of the harem. She was simple and not materialistic....yet she was well liked by the lowly and the popular. When the King sees her he is so impressed. She was humble and pure and lovely to him. Yet she was intelligent, wise with her words, and scripture says she won the King's favor over all the most beautiful women in the land. (Esther 2:17)
What is it really that makes a woman beautiful? Aren't we all searcing for it? What draws people to her and makes them want more?
In our culture today we are told that it is the perfect body, a lot of money and fame that makes a woman beautiful. Not so with Esther! All those who came in contact with her loved her and wanted to be in her inner circle. Yet she didn't demand or control those around her. She had a quiet confidence in her God and thus in herself. And whether people knew it our not it was the "beauty of the Lord" that they were drawn to. May we all aim to possess that kind of beauty. Psalm 90:17 "May the beauty of Lord rest upon us and establish the work of our hands".
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