When we had a baby seven years after our second child was born, some assumed he was an accident. An “oops” baby. He wasn’t, however. We had tried for a few months to get pregnant. Our other two children were planned, also. I’d always wanted my kids close together, and the first two were exactly eighteen months apart. After two natural births, however, I wasn’t ready to have another child right away. We’d always talked about having three or four children. That’s why a few years after our second child we decided to go for having our late one/last one.

I never wanted my children to feel like they were unwanted. I was raised by hardworking parents who never made me feel like a burden. Even so, there were times in my life when I questioned the reason for my existence. I’m sure most of us have felt that way at some point in our lives.

Today, I’m talking about one of the greatest romances in the Bible, the story of Queen Esther. She was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people. The Bible says that she had no father or mother, and was adopted by her family member, Mordecai.

Royal Romance

This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush:

King Xerxes gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa. He was in high spirits from wine and commanded his servants to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at.

But when the attendants delivered the king’s command, Queen Vashti refused to come. The king became furious and burned with anger. Queen Vashti was banished from the kingdom, and a search was made for someone to replace her as queen.

There was a Jew named Mordecai who had a cousin named Hadassah, also known as Esther, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.

Esther was brought to the palace along with many other young women and entrusted to Hegai, the servant who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.

Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 

When the turn came for Esther to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence.

Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other women. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 

At the same time, there was a man named Haman who had a position of honor in the King’s court. All of the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman as the king had commanded. But Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, would not kneel down or pay him honor.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them.”

When Mordecai found out about the plan to annihilate the Jews, he instructed Esther to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Esther replied: “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.

“And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

So Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.

When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”

Esther asked that the Jews would be saved, and King Xerxes granted her request. Because of the obedience of one young woman, God’s people were saved.

Mordecai’s statement, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” reminds me that we all have a purpose in life.

There is a reason why you were born. You do not exist by accident, but by the plan of a loving God. As you grow closer to Him through prayer, reading of the Scripture, and fellowship with other believers, allow Him to show you what He has in store for you.

This month’s blog theme is Family. This Sunday is the day we set aside to honor mothers and grandmothers everywhere. Our featured book, The Key to Everything, tells the story of what happens when a nurse practitioner inherits her late grandmother’s home.

Author’s Inspiration:

Sometimes the tiniest things inspire me. I try to listen to God and see where He might be leading me. With The Key to Everything, I kept seeing in my mind a key with a red ribbon in a box and decided to find out more about it through my writing.

About the book:

When nurse practitioner, Dr Genny Sanders inherits her late-grandmother’s house, she moves back to her hometown of Worthville, Georgia, determined to leave her past—and her scheming ex—behind her with a new job and new friends. But during a meeting with her grandmother’s estate attorney, David Worth, she learns of a threat to her property. A local developer wants to buy her land and demolish her house.

Genny refuses to sell, but the land developer isn’t taking no for an answer. As if personal threats aren’t bad enough, a foreclosure proceeding looms, and a fire flashes in the night. Everything Genny holds dear is threatened. If she can’t find a way to save her grandmother’s house, Genny will be forced to give up the fresh start she so desperately wants. And to complicate matters further, she’s falling for David.

While going through her grandmother’s belongings, Genny finds a mysterious key with a red ribbon. What does it fit? Could it possibly be the answer to her problems? What do the messages of love and forgiveness she keeps hearing have to do with everything? As she searches for these answers, she learns more about herself and her grandmother’s legacy than she could have ever imagined.

Excerpt:

Before bed, Genny took a moment to sit on the porch swing beside Elizabeth, who was roosting on one of the cushions. There’d be eggs in the morning for sure. Crickets chirped, and an owl hooted somewhere close by. Tree frogs joined the chorus. Even though the temperature that day had neared ninety degrees, a breeze blew across the porch, carrying the scent of jasmine, which grew on the side of the house. The sounds and smells of a thousand nights spent in the safety of this house brought comfort in the middle of all the swirling questions.

She imagined her grandmother coming to the screen door and calling for her, asking whether she wanted a snack before bed, maybe a biscuit with honey and milk. They’d bring the snack back out onto the porch and sit and talk over their day. Right about then was when Genny would have said, “Grandmother, what am I going to do about all this mess?”

Maybe her grandmother would have paused, lifted her eyes to the southern sky, and said, “I don’t know, sweetie, but don’t the stars look especially bright tonight?”

About the author:

Award winning Southern writer, Beverly Varnado, is a novelist, screenwriter, and blogger who writes to give readers hope in the redemptive purposes of God.

She has written a nonfiction memoir as well as several novels and screenplays, one of which was a finalist for the prestigious Kairos Prize in Screenwriting. The novella, A Season for Everything, is the third work in a series set in Worthville, Georgia. Previous novels set there are A Key to Everything and A Plan for Everything. Her work is also included in several anthologies and periodicals. As an artist, her work was recently chosen for exhibit at a State University gallery.

She lives in Georgia with her husband, Jerry, and their chocolate Aussiedor who is outnumbered by several cats. Beverly is Mom to three children and Mimi to two grandchildren.

Author media links:

Read her weekly blog One Ringing Bell, peals of words on faith, living, writing, and art at oneringingbell.blogspot.com. Also catch her at http://www.BeverlyVarnado.com , on her Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/BeverlyVarnadoAuthor, Twitter @VarnadoBeverly, or @Beverly Varnado on Instagram.

I received my copy of The Reluctant Billionaire in the mail. I’m so excited to be able to hold it in my hands. The following link will take you to Amazon where you can purchase your own print book or Kindle copy. Enjoy!

Today’s Cat Tails star was only in our lives for a very short time but made a big impact on all of us. With beautiful markings and a laid-back personality, he made himself right to home after having disappeared for three months.

Ransom

Ransom was one of two kittens who showed up in the garage with their stray mother cat. She kept them outside for several months, and while she became the neighborhood pet, the kittens remained skittish.

When we discovered the cats taking refuge in our garage, we scheduled surgeries for them. We were able to catch one of the kittens, but Ransom got scared and we couldn’t catch him.

A few months later, we decided it was time to take Ransom in to get neutered. The night before the scheduled surgery, he took off. He didn’t come back, and after several weeks we figured that he was gone for good.

About three months after he left, Ransom mysteriously reappeared. Before that, he’d been skittish and not very friendly. When he returned, he was a different cat. He wanted in the house, and he came in and went back out again as if he were used to doing so.

The only possible reason we could think of for the change in him was that he’d become a part of someone else’s household while he was gone. Maybe when he left our garage, he’d found his way to another house and the people had made a house cat of him. We never did find out for sure, because he stayed close to our home after he came back.

He liked to sleep on the beds. He got along well with our dog. We all enjoyed having him around.

One time, my son watched as Ranson brought a squirrel up onto the deck and proceeded to eat the whole thing, minus the tail.

Because Ransom was an indoor/outdoor cat and we wanted to keep the pet population in the neighborhood down, I scheduled him for surgery (again). This time he went willingly into the carrier. The vet wanted to run some tests before surgery. The test results were heartbreaking. He had FIV, a feline aids virus. It’s transmitted through blood and, like with humans, sexual contact.

The virus is contagious and incurable. Since Ransom was part of our household of cats, we didn’t want them to get infected. So we made the tough choice to put him down.

The loss of this mysterious cat saddened all of us.

A few weeks after we put Ransom down, a stray female cat showed up with two kittens. They looked a lot like Ransom, and we guessed that he was their father. We had the kittens tested for FIV and they were negative.

Having a part of Ransom in the two kittens made losing him a little easier, but he will always remain one of our favorites.

It’s hard for me to write a Mother’s Day post because I miss my mom so much. She passed away in 2004, but sometimes it feels like it’s been just a few years and not 16. She died of complications from diabetes after struggling with her illness.

My mom worked hard all of her life. She always said she wasn’t going to marry a farmer, and my dad didn’t farm at the time they got married. A few years into their marriage, he took over the family farm. When I was a baby, they lived in an old farmhouse that didn’t have an indoor toilet. Soon after I was born, they moved to a house that had indoor plumbing, but my mom’s life didn’t get any easier. Raising five children with not a lot of money meant ongoing challenges for her.

I never saw the struggle in my mom, however. Maybe I was too young to be aware of it. I remember her working hard, though. Gardening, canning, picking berries, even helping with the haying.

Although she was a busy person, she always made time to serve in church. Over the years, she was Sunday school teacher, Bible school leader, junior church director. She planned and directed Christmas programs and other special events. She became the church secretary and served the pastors and listened to the trials of the congregation.

She gave of her time and energy for the church in whatever capacity she served. And she laughed a lot. People liked her and trusted her. She finished her life well as a servant of the Lord, as a loving wife and mother.

Mom had a servant’s heart, and I hope to emulate that as I age. I hope that I can keep laughing and have the trust of others to listen to their stories.

Mom never saw me become a published author. When I first wrote the Substitute Family, (of which I am publishing a chapter each week here on my blog) I gave it to Mom to read. She said she realized as she got partway through it that she was not just reading a story, but reading a book. Those were words of praise to me, that she recognized the difference.

I’m a storyteller. I create fictional worlds, but my characters struggle with real life challenges. They find their hope in the Lord to solve their problems, as I have also found my hope and strength in my faith. And much of who I am today, as a mother and as a person, is because of the strong godly influence of my mom.

This Mother’s Day, I give honor to my mom as the greatest positive influence on my life. I’ve met many challenges, but by her exampled I’ve been able to put my trust in the Lord through it all.