The First Princess

15 When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. Esther 2

A few years ago, after a sleep over at a friend's house, a group of us were sitting at the kitchen table drinking our coffee and nibbling on breakfast.  Somehow, favorite books of the bible came up.  Mine was Acts, another girl's was Romans, another girl was undecided, and one exclaimed, "I love Esther!"

Ok, the Romans I could understand, and I could get the undecided person, but I really didn't get Esther.  It was a forgettable book to me.  I had read it, but I honestly at the time could not even think of what the storyline in Esther was about.  I had lumped it together with the "dry-historical" books of the bible with Chronicles and Kings.

Interesting fact: it is actually typically grouped together in the "historical" books of the bible, which does include Chronicles and Kings, but that's not the point here.

So as I'm slowly making my way through the books of the bible alphabetically (for those of you new here, I have slight OCD tendencies) and Esther was next up.  I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but I kept remembering the one girl's excitement over the book of Esther and thought that I should at least try to find what she loved so much about it.

I'm only two chapters into the book, and I haven't yet found the love and appreciation for the book.  However, I can say that by reading it slower, with a study guide, I'm understanding it a bit more and I'll retain it much better.

In short, I'm taking it as the first Disney Princess story.  Yep, you heard that right.

To summarize in Disney terms: A king and queen got into a fight.  What the queen did was so upsetting to the king, that he stripped her of her title.  However, he required a queen to take her place.  So, he searched the kingdom for eligible girls, put them through a year of beauty treatments each and had each one presented to him.  Esther was a girl whose parents had died and was being raised by her cousin Mordecai, who treated her as his own child.  Esther was taken to the palace with other women and when the king saw Esther, he immediately was won over by her beauty and she was announced as Queen.

Esther had it easy.  No fighting ice powers she didn't know how to control.  No pricking fingers on spindles.  No poisoned apples.  No losing the ability to speak.  No wicked step-family.  She went through a year-long spa day and came out the other side a queen.  Ta-daaa!

God always has a plan for us.  Sometimes it's really far-fetched from what we're thinking and seeing for ourselves.  I doubt Esther woke up one morning and thought, "I should be queen some day, better start my etiquette lessons."  It was so far beyond what she and Mordecai had envisioned that it came as a huge shock to both of them.

Nothing is impossible, because through God, all things are possible.