It’s interesting, when we pause to think of it, that morning comes the way it does.
In the system God chose, morning does not flash upon us; earth isn’t flat and floating in space; the sun does not “turn on” every twenty-four hours.
We are given a little time to ourselves in the morning, every morning, a provision of time allowing us to get ready for our day . . . to spend awhile seeking the Presence and counsel of the Lord our God. We have been given TIME to worship Him.
We may, if we chose, bone up on current events in the mornings. We may call a friend or relative and say hello every day. We may sleep in and get up just in time to catch the bus.
Those who are married may remember the sweetness of romantic love in the early morning, when the best part of waking up was to turn and see the beloved one there beside . . . days when one hated to get on with the day not because of the job or the “to do” list, but because each had to go a separate way.
King Xerxes was without a Queen. He may or may not have been waking up alone, but he was without, as we would say, a soul mate. There was a maiden in the court of the women, one of those that had been confiscated for the King’s consideration, the belle, one might say, of the unfolding drama. She woke up each day knowing who she was, and from what heritage she had come. Alone, but not abandoned by God. More pure than gates and bars could make her to be. Righteousness brimming over the horizon of Xerxes’ court … the righteousness that is by faith.
Painting of Esther
Francois Leon Benouville
Cor Unum Abbey 