A Single Life

The Sunday School teacher places a color page in front of each one of the children and instead of the usual happy faces, she receives questioning looks.

On the black and white page, ready and waiting to be colored, there is a beautiful palace ornate and lovely, but below it sits a man who is not dressed as a prince, but in tattered rags. His hair is matted and his face is sorrowful.

It is Mordecai from the book of "Esther."

This image of the coloring page came into my mind as I listened to a sermon this week. The teaching was on Esther. The ultimate princess story. A young orphan raised by her cousin growing into a beautiful girl who finds favor with the King and becomes his Queen. This Queen, Esther, has the courage to stand before the King, trick an evil man and save her people. I never get tired of hearing this story.

However, through this teaching, I gained a new appreciation for another character in the story: Mordecai, who can be an underplayed man in the Bible. The Pastor pointed out that it is not common for Sunday School teachers to have coloring pages of him along side ones of David killing Goliath or Moses leading the Nation of Israel across the parted Red Sea. But his story is just as significant.

Esther was an orphan. Most likely, her parents were killed during the siege of Jerusalem. Mordecai took her in as his own and raised her to be a strong woman who feared God, so much so, she was willing to risk her life for the Jews. Because of his kindness and seeing the importance of one single life, in turn, countless lives were saved.

The story of Mordecai reminds me of the research I have done for my next book. I have read about many rescuers; those who risked their lives to save the Jews during the Holocaust. I have learned that not all the rescuers were Oskar Schindler or Irena Scendler; some saved a single life or kept a family in hiding until the Germans were defeated. Their stories are just as significant as those who saved hundreds.

Princess Alice is an example of this. Born into royalty as the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she later married Price Andrew of Greece. Germany invaded Greece in 1943 and began hunting for Jews. Haimaki Cohen, a Jew and a former member of parliament was known by the royal family. Cohen had passed away, but his wife, Rachel and their five children needed a place of sanctuary. Princess Alice was a very giving person and deeply devoted to Jesus Christ. When she heard of the Cohen's desperate situation, she opened her home to shelter this family and they stayed there in hiding until Greece was liberated. At one point, Princess Alice was called into questioning by the Gestapo. Using her slight deafness as an excuse, she pretended she could not hear any of their questions.

Both Mordecai and Princess Alice saw the value of a single life and because of their conscious choice, a whole nation was saved and a family's legacy was able to continue.

Don't underestimate the value of pouring into a person's life. You never know what God has in store for that one life.