Letter to a Little Princess
Dear Princess,
Have you thought of how important your golden gown of obedience really is? Those who have worn it have been able to save their own lives and others, too. There once was a princess in a Persian palace who was very beautiful. It was not only her carefully combed hair and rosy cheeks that made her pretty. It was her golden gown of obedience that she had learned to wear since she was a small girl. All her maids loved her, for she never was selfish or vain.
No one knew that she was once a little orphan from Judah, or that she had been adopted by her kind cousin that worked in the king’s gate. It was in his little house that she had first worn that golden gown, years before she had ever come to live in the palace. He told her that she must never tell that she was really a Judean girl. And of course she obeyed.
Now the king of Persia was looking for a beautiful princess to be his queen. When he saw the sweet Judean princess, he chose her at once. There was no queen of Persia so loving and kind as she was, everybody said.
One day a maid brought troubling news to the queen. “One of Jews that works at the gate is wailing and throwing ashes on his head.” The queen sent a trusted servant to find out what was the matter, for she knew it must be her father.
The servant came back with the message: “The king has signed a decree to have all the Jews killed in the land of Persia. You must go before the King and plead for the lives of your people.” The young Queen was frightened. The King could get very angry sometimes, and no one was supposed to go into the throne room unless he invited them.
“Tell him that even the queen cannot visit the king unless she is invited. I have not been called to come see the king for thirty days,” she said. Didn’t he see that she couldn’t obey him this time?
But his answer came back firmly: “Don’t think that you will escape because you are in the palace,” her father replied. “If you don’t speak up, we will surely be destroyed. Maybe you have been made queen for this very reason.”
Would she do right and obey? It was a scary thought, but she sent the message back: “Gather all the Jews and pray for me three days. My maids and I will do the same. Then I will go before the king, even though it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.”
Brave little queen! Wearing her golden gown and her sweetest smile, she came trembling before the great Persian king. And don’t you know that he was pleased to see her and give her what she desired? It was obedience that saved her people that day.
Love,
Aunt Faith
