Today Jewish people celebrate Purim.

Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Queen Esther—the beautiful, brave Jewish woman who won the beauty contest to become the new queen of Persia. She risked her life to approach the king and beg for the deliverance of the Jewish people from a signed death warrant and certain extermination. Because of her courage, King Xerxes allowed the Jewish people to defend themselves, and the Jews of Persia were able to defeat their enemies and survive. This all happened on March 7 (the 14^th day of the month of Adar of the Hebrew calendar), and to celebrate their deliverance, a new holiday was declared—Purim.

Jewish people today still celebrate Purim. In fact, it is one of the most fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. Traditionally, the day features carnival-like celebrations with plays and parodies, beauty contests, and much feasting. The celebration is sometimes referred to as the Jewish Mardi Gras. And of course, the story of Esther is retold as a wonderful reminder of how God works in all situations—even when the circumstances seem bleak and overwhelming—to protect his people. In fact, Jewish people sometimes refer to these situations as “Purim stories”—meaning a crazy, mixed-up series of events that don’t seem to make sense, but in the end, all work out.

As Christians, we can celebrate that same truth. In the Book of Esther, even though God is never mentioned by name, we can clearly see him at work in the lives of individuals and in the nation itself. We can be sure that God still is at work in our world as well. Even when we can’t understand everything that is happening around us, we can be sure that God is faithful and that he will protect all who belong to him.

But the Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

To Do

Celebrate Purim by taking time to read the story of Esther (Esther 1-9).

Also on this day . . .

1854—Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine.

1933—The board game Monopoly was invented.

1955—”Peter Pan” became the first Broadway play to be televised in color. The original cast was featured.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.