We have been employing the wonderful gift of imagination. Imagine God thinking to give us an imagination!
Now, since we are imagining, consider the possibility that out of all those women, enough of them that the king could entertain a new prospect every night, the king’s eunuch saw something in you worth protecting and promoting, and imagine if you dare that among all the others, it was you who began to receive special advise and favor inside the court of the concubines.
There was once, not a mythical but an historical king who called for the ingathering of the beautiful maidens in his country, and there was a eunuch whose name was Hegai who was put in charge of them all.
No one knew the king the way Hegai did. The former Queen Vashti certainly did not. She had been stripped of her crown and her royal honors; a new Queen was to be discovered and lifted up to her place.
Hegai would know what trinkets, teases and trifles were tedious to Xerxes. Hegai would know what conversations, comforts and considerations would hold his interest. If anyone would know, it was Hegai.
Speaking quite frankly, Hegai was at liberty to know women after their deceits or virtues, when he found them, for he would never have one – a woman – of his own. He was able to see every imaginable defect or perfection at close range. Somehow, something about the heroine of this story must have been unique in the extreme. Stay tuned. She’s a Cor Unum woman!
Jean Cocteau’s
Belle et le Bete
Cor Unum Abbey 