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No Audition Required

Young Women In Persia

Read: Esther 2:1-4, 12-13

The young woman fought back tears as she responded to the interviewer’s questions. All her life, she had dreamed of being a recording artist. Now, she had quit her job and borrowed money for a long bus ride, all for the chance to audition for the new season of American Idol. Behind that young woman sat hundreds of other young men and women, trying not to look nervous as they waited for their names to be called. Their future plans rested on the opinions of the three judges in the next room and what happened during their brief moments behind the closed doors.

The young women in today’s passage must have struggled with similar feelings. When King Xerxes wanted a new queen, his officials searched the vast empire for beautiful young women. After receiving beauty treatments for a year, each woman spent one night with the king. Her future depended on whether or not she could impress the king enough that he would choose her out of the rest of the throng as his new queen. After the months of preparation ended, each woman nervously awaited her turn to see if she would succeed during her one night behind closed doors.

How blessed we are that our God is not like a Persian tyrant or an American Idol judge. We don’t have to audition to see if we’re good enough to become his children. He accepts us just as we are, blemishes and all. And he doesn’t offer us just one chance to know him. Out of his great love for us, he continually places people and circumstances in our lives to draw us toward a relationship with him. Even if we reject him, he keeps on wooing and pursuing us. How can we not respond to such great love?

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)