woman of GOD

She almost didn't recognize the reflection she saw in her vanity. 

Her long dark hair was intricately braided and adorned with little jewels. The glow in her cheeks turned them a soft pink and the anticipation of the night shone in her eyes like fire.

It had been a long journey leading up to this night. It would be a year ago tomorrow that she had been summoned. How differently she viewed life and love now. When she first came to this place she had been so naïve, and frightened. In her homesickness she had cried herself to sleep every night for the first month.

Everything here had been so strange to her back then. The splendor and majesty had intimidated her. 

She knew that she wasn't alone in her feelings. Sometimes when the night breeze played with the chiffon curtains she could hear the soft whimpering of another girl in a room down the hall. At first, hearing the pitiful sobs of a fellow lonely soul would stir her own feelings of abandonment and bring fresh tears to her big brown eyes. But as the months passed the tears stopped flowing so easily. 

It was so strange that they were all here trying to compete for the affection of one man. How humbling it was spending days upon end with scores of beautiful women all eager to please the same King...and only one would be named his Queen. One of hundreds would feel honor and distinction; her peers would feel the bitter pang of rejection.

Tonight was the night she’d been preparing for these long twelve months. 

All of the beauty treatments, the pampering, the careful diets, regimented schedule, etiquette education, everything had been building up to this moment.  

As terrifying as this moment was, she had the peace of God in her heart. Jehovah had brought her to this apex in her life. He would carry her through. 

She was confident of that. But her heart quickened and a pang of fear gripped her pure heart when she heard the tapping of footsteps against the cold stone palace floor.

“Esther of Susa, the King is ready for you.”

She still started at that name. Esther. It was the woman she had become in this year. Where was the timid girl Hadassah that had come here so many sleepless nights ago?

What if the King did not find her suitable? Then all would be for naught. Dwelling on these thoughts had robbed her of her confidence. No matter, the time was now. She would sink or soar and she trusted her fate to the Father of her people.

With a deep breath, she adjusted her necklace with a trembling hand and rose to follow the King’s aide to the very chambers of the King of Persia.

“Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. 

And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was take to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, 

in the seventh year of his reign. 

The king loved Esther more than all the other women and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast,

 the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king.”

~Esther 2:15-18