For Such a Time as This

Addison Jones has an eye for beauty, a mind for detail, and a heart that takes things seriously — which may be exactly why, on the night after Sunday school taught the story of Queen Esther, she dreams herself right into the palace. In the dream, the whole family is there: a Mordecai who sounds remarkably like Dad, a handmaiden who moves exactly like Ana, and a small child who wanders through the throne room at the most solemn possible moment with something that looks very much like a toy truck. But underneath the dream’s warmth is a real question, and when Addison wakes up and brings it to the family table, Esther 4:14 lands not as ancient history but as something written for right now. Because courage dressed in purpose is still courage — and every person in the Jones house was placed exactly where they are for a reason.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to the Jones Family Chronicles. For life at school, home and church is always full of lessons, laughter, and love. Meet Dad, the pastor's assistant, Mom, the heart of the home, and their five bright and lively kids. Allison, Addison, Anna, Ava Grace, and little Andy, who somehow always managed to turn ordinary days into extraordinary adventures. So gather round, open your heart, and let's discover together the joy of faith, family, and the timeless truths of God's Word. This is the Jones Family Chronicles. All right, kids, gather close. Papa has a story for you about your favorite family, the Joneses. Sunday school that week had been about Esther. Addison had known the outline of the story, the palace, the king, the plot, the bravery. It was one of those Bible stories that showed up early in childhood and stayed the way certain things stay. But Sister Caldwell, who taught the other children's class with the particular combination of warmth and precision that made lessons feel like conversations had gone deeper than the outline. She had read Esther four fourteen slowly twice. Who knoweth? she had said, setting the Bible down and looking around the room, whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. She had paused. Esther didn't end up in the palace by accident. Every detail of her life, her preparation, her character, her position, was placed there on purpose. And the question God asked Grimordecae wasn't just a question for Esther, it's a question for every person in this room right now. Addison had written it down in the small notebook she kept in her Bible cover. Not the whole verse, just three words. Such a time. On the walk home from church she was quieter than usual, which Allison noticed and Anna did not, but Anna was narrating something about the children's church craft project at a pace that left no room for noticing anything external. Ava Grace walked beside Addison and didn't ask. Andy rode in the stroller with a truck in each fist and his Sunday shoes already half off, which was something Mom had quietly accepted as his particular form of post church decompression. That evening Addison read the whole book of Esther. Well, not all four chapters word by word, but enough. She read the preparation, the twelve months of care before Esther ever stood before the king. She read the way Esther moved, not impulsively, not loudly, but with intention. She read chapter four until the words were familiar. She fell asleep with her Bible still open on the pillow beside her. The first thing Addison noticed was the fabric. It was the color of deep water, a blue so rich and layered it seemed to hold light inside it rather than reflect it. The garment fell in long, even folds from her shoulders to the floor, and the edges were worked in gold thread so fine it looked like it had been drawn by someone with very small, very steady hands. Addison studied the embroidery for a full moment before she looked up and remembered where she was The Palace. It was enormous in the way things and dreams not frightening, just vast. Columns of pale stone rose to ceilings she couldn't fully see. The floors were smooth and cool and reflected everything above them like still water. There were flowers and arrangements so precise they looked considered rather than placed, and Addison approved of them instinctively. She was Esther. She understood this the way you understand things in dreams, not because someone told her, but because it was simply true. And Esther, she knew, had something before her that required everything she was. A voice came from behind her, direct and organized and familiar in a way that made her chest feel steadier. You need to go to him, the voice said. She turned. It was Alison, not in palace clothes exactly. She was wearing something practical and well pressed with her hair pulled back in the particular no nonsense style she used when things needed to get done. She had what appeared to be a scroll tucked under her arm. She looked like someone who had already assessed the situation and formed a plan. Mordecae says if you stay silent, deliverance will come from somewhere else, Alison said. But you're here right now, and this is not a coincidence. And she said it the way Alison said most true things, simply, without ceremony, as though the truth were a practical matter that needed acting upon. Addison looked at the scroll Allison held out to her. In the dream she already knew what it said. The room she was prepared in was full of motion. There was a handmaiden on her left who couldn't stop moving. She fluttered from one corner to another, adjusting things that were already adjusted, asking questions before the last answer had finished landing, and providing a near constant stream of commentary about what was happening, what might happen, and what had happened last time someone went before the king uninvited, and whether anyone had considered that the timing of all of this was extremely dramatic. Not that it's bad, Anna said. Because it was absolutely Anna wearing robes that were slightly askew in the way her clothing always found a way to be, her hands moving as fast as her words. It's just a lot. It's a lot of a lot. Are you nervous? I would be nervous. I'm nervous, and it's not even me going. Should someone send a message first? Or is that the whole point that you just go? The whole point is that she just goes, said a quieter voice from the other side. Ava Grace sat near the window, hands folded in her lap, watching Addison with the steady, unhurried attention that was entirely her own. Her robes were simple and soft colored, and she wore them the way she wore everything, without needing them to say anything. She had been sitting beside Addison since the dream began, close enough to be felt, undemanding enough to be forgotten, and then suddenly needed. You already know what you're going to do, Ava Grace said, not a question, just naming the thing that was already true. Addison looked at her. She did know. She had known since Alison handed her the scroll. The knowing had arrived before the courage, which was not the order she would have chosen, but perhaps that was how it worked. And then from somewhere across the marble floor came the sound of a small and even set of footsteps. A tiny figure in royal adjacent clothing, which was to say something that had probably once been a proper garment, and was now worn in the manner of someone who had found it and decided it was acceptable, came toddling through the preparation room with tremendous purpose. He was carrying something. On closer inspection. It was a small wooden object carved in the unmistakable shape of a cart, with wheels. Bah, Andy said, with the calm authority of a person who had arrived exactly where he intended to be. He sat down in the middle of the floor, set his cart on the marble, and pushed it. Anna stared at him, then Addison. Where did he even come from? He's always been here, Ava Grace said, which seemed to satisfy the logic of the dream entirely. Mom appeared in the doorway then, calm and warm and completely present, the way Mom always was when something real was about to happen. She crossed to Addison without hurrying and stood before her, taking in the garment, the gold at the edges, the weight in Addison's eyes. She didn't say are you ready? She didn't say you don't have to do this, she said you look exactly like someone who was made for this moment. She adjusted one fold of fabric at Addison's shoulder, precise and unhurried, the way she straightened a bows on school mornings. And then she stepped back. Now go, she said. The corridor to the throne room was long. Addison walked it alone, which was how it needed to be. The sound of Anna's voice faded behind her, and Ava Grace's quiet presence, and the small rhythmic sound of Andy's cart on marble. The corridor grew quieter with each step, and the quiet had weight. She thought about what Alison had said. Deliverance will come from somewhere else. But you are here. She thought about how she had noticed the embroidery first, the gold thread, the precision of it, how even in the dream the details had spoken to her before the situation had. That was not an accident. The doors at the end of the corridor were tall and still. Addison stood before them and said not out loud but inward, the same way she'd heard mom pray sometimes interior and sincere. If this is why I'm here, then I am here for it. And if I perish I perish. She had read those words the night before. They had seemed very old and very far away. Standing in front of those doors, they were neither. She pushed them open. The throne room was vast and bright, and at the far end of it sat the king. The king in the particular logic of the dream had Dad's eyes. Not a copy of Dad, not exactly Dad, but someone whose gaze held the same quality. Steady and measuring, and when it landed on her, not unkind. He extended the golden scepter. Addison walked forward, and the dream, satisfied with what it had shown her, began to soften at the edges the way dreams do when they're finished. She was in her own room, her own ceiling. Her Bible had slipped off the pillow and lay spine up beside her head. Addison lay still for a moment, letting the dream settle the way you let something settle when you don't want to disturb it. Then she got up and went to find the family. Saturday morning had already put everyone in motion. Alison was at the table with a book. Addison could hear Anna somewhere in the back of the house, either playing or narrating a detailed account of something to an audience of one. Ava Grace was in the kitchen with mom standing at the counter with the quiet focus she brought to any task that required patience. Andy was on the floor near the table with two trucks and a ball and had arranged them in a triangle formation for reasons known only to him. Dad was at the kitchen table with his Bible and his coffee. Addison pulled out a chair and sat down. I had a dream about Esther, she said. Dad looked up. Mom turned from the counter. Alison closed her book, even Anna materialized in the doorway, drawn by the change in the room's atmosphere, the way she was drawn by most things immediately and without transition. Tell us, Dad said. So she did. She told it carefully way she did most things in order, with the details that mattered. The fabric first because that was where it had started, the scroll Alison with her particular scroll and no nonsense hair. Anna and the constant motion, Ava Grace by the window, Andy and his cart on the marble floor. Mom smiled when she heard about the cart. Addison told them about the corridor and the doors, about saying if I perish, I perish, and about walking through. When she finished, the kitchen was quiet for a moment. Then Anna said I was in your dream, and I was still talking a lot. Yes, Addison said. You absolutely were. Anna looked satisfied. Well, that's accurate. After breakfast, Mom sent the children outside for a while and the afternoon unfolded in the easy, unplanned way of Saturday afternoons that had no particular destination. They were in the front yard when Brother Thompson came down his porch steps with pickles on his lead, heading toward the sidewalk at an unhurried pace he had developed since retirement, which was the pace of a man who had decided that most things could wait long enough to be worth walking to rather than rushing. Beside him, keeping easy pace, was Sister Beverly. She was carrying something. A small covered dish, the kind that travels between church families when someone needs a meal, or a kindness or simply a reason for someone to open their door. She and Brother Thompson were talking quietly as they walked, and there was something in the way they moved together that had grown more natural with each passing week. Less like two people walking in the same direction and more like two people who had simply decided that this was the direction. Brother Thompson raised a hand toward the children. Good morning. Good morning, Brother Thompson, Alison said, which prompted Anna to say good morning at approximately twice the volume. Sister Beverly smiled at them, warm and direct and already moving toward something. We're taking this to Sister May, she said, meaning the dish. She had a hard week. Addison watched them continue down the sidewalk. She thought about the dream and the corridor, and the way courage sometimes looks like simply walking in a direction because someone needs you to. Ava Grace appeared beside her, following her gaze. She always knows who needs something, Ava Grace said, watching Sister Beverly's retreating figure. Yeah, Addison said. She sure does. Pickles glanced back at them once before rounding the corner, tail moving at a moderate and dignified pace. Dad's question at dinner. What stood out about your day? Brought the morning back around. Alison noted that she had finished her book and started another, which she described as a productive use of a Saturday. Anna reported that she had discovered a new configuration for the backyard game she'd been developing, and it was significantly more sophisticated than the previous version. Ava Grace said she had seen Sister Beverly carrying a dish to Sister May's house, and that she thought this was a good and important thing. Dandy held up a piece of bread and then ate it. Addison was quiet for a moment. I keep thinking about the dream, she said, about what Sister Caldwell said in Sunday school about being placed somewhere on purpose. She looked at her plate. There's a girl in my class, Jenna. She gets left out of things and I always notice, but I never actually do anything about it. I just notice and keep going. She was quiet again. I think maybe I'm supposed to do something about it. Dad looked at her steadily. What makes you think that? Because I keep noticing, Addison said, and Esther didn't just notice, she moved. The table was still for a moment. Then Anna said quietly for Anna. That's a real Esther thing to say. The living room settled into its evening shape, everyone finding their place in the gentle way of a family that had gone down this road enough times to know where they belong. Andy had his drum, Ava Grace sat close to Mom. Anna was still for the second time today, which was noticeable. Alison had her hands folded, Addison sat with a small notebook open on her knee, and three words she had written on Sunday morning visible at the top of the page. Such a time. Dad opened his Bible to Esther chapter four and read verse fourteen slowly and without hurry, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? He looked up. Mordecai is not telling Esther that everything depends on her. He's telling her that she was placed where she was placed on purpose. The position she had, the access she had, the character she had built through the years of preparation, none of it was accidental. God had arranged something, and the question was whether Esther would recognize her moment and step into it. And she did, Alison said. She did, Dad agreed. But not without counting the cost. She said if I perish, I perish. She knew what going before the king unannounced could mean, but she did it anyway. Because the need was real and she was the one who could meet it. Mom spoke gently. That's what courage looks like when it's attached to purpose. It's not reckless, it's not loud. It's someone who has counted the cost and decided that the need in front of them is worth more than their own comfort. Addison was writing something in her notebook. She didn't look up while she wrote. Every one of you, Dad said, looking around the room, is somewhere on purpose. This family, this neighborhood, your school, the people who sit near you every day. None of it's random. The question God is always asking is the same one Mordecai asked Esther. Who knoweth whether thou art come to this place for such a time as this? Ava Grace looked up, even Andy. Especially Andy, Mom said. Andy tapped his drum once, solemnly. Dad prayed, he thanked God for placing this family exactly where they were with exactly the gifts they had. He prayed for the courage to recognize the moments that belonged to each of them, the corridor, the doors, the step through. He prayed for Addison by name and for Jenna, whom he had only just heard about, and for every person in every room who was waiting for someone to notice them and move. After the amen, the room held still. Addison looked out at her notebook. She had written beneath the three words she had copied on Sunday one more move. Monday at Glendale Christian Academy had the usual rhythm of a week beginning, backpacks settled, chairs scooted in the particular energy of a morning that hasn't decided what it's going to be yet. Addison found her seat and set her things in their proper places, notebook, pencil, the small Bible cover with a notebook inside. She smoothed the surface of her desk. Her bow was centered, her collar was flat. Jenna sat two rows over, arriving the way she always arrived, quietly, setting her backpack down without the thing. Drawing anything toward her, taking her seat at the edge of the group's attention the way you sit in a room where you're not entirely sure you belong. Addison had noticed this seventeen times. She had counted in the way she counted things. She picked up her pencil, she set it down. She thought about the corridor, long and quiet and narrowing toward a door she had to open herself. You thought about what Ava Grace had said in the dream. You already know what you're going to do. Before morning circle began, Addison picked up her pencil case, crossed the two rows between them, and sat down in the empty seat beside Jenna. Jenna looked up surprised. I'm Addison, she said. I like your notebook cover. That color's hard to find. It was true it was a deep, particular teal that Addison had genuinely noticed and genuinely admired, because she noticed things like that and it cost nothing to say so. Jenna looked down at her notebook, then back up. The surprise on her face was making room for something else. Thank you. Sister Banda called the class to order. Addison returned to her seat in time, but she arrived there differently than she had left it. Lighter and more settled at once, the way you feel when you have walked through a door. You were not sure you would open and found the other side entirely ordinary and entirely right. She opened her notebook, beneath the word move she wrote one more thing. Done. Outside the classroom window, the morning was bright and steady, and full of the particular unhurried light of a day that had arrived exactly on time. Now who's ready for brownies?