4 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.² But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. ³ In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. ⁴ When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. ⁵ Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. ⁶ So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. ⁷ Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. ⁹ Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ¹¹ “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.” ¹² When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ 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?” ¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” ¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

Our lives are a patchwork of small moments, engaging each and every person at any given moment in time.  While we are never fully aware of all of these moments and the people involved, we all possess powerful influence over one another.  Like the threads in a piece of cloth, each thread, while small and seemingly insignificant,  when placed alongside the others can contribute to the strength and beauty of the finished product.  Likewise, if one thread defies the pattern of the rest, the fabric is collectively weakened, and loses its beauty.  God desires us to view each moment not for ourselves alone, but to consider the importance each moment holds for us collectively.  The gospel of Jesus is about all of us, never just about only “me.”  How we choose to approach our own part in the great design, with our limitations and imperfections, will dictate if we even desire to be woven.  However, once we are carefully woven into the weaver’s design it becomes clear that we are not the center of the beauty.  We realize that we contribute to the beauty alongside our fellow threads. But the final praise belongs entirely to the weaver, the creator of the design, who saw the beauty in all the threads carefully woven together before each thread could fathom anything as beautiful on their own. When we submit ourselves to His design, we find fulfillment.