⁸ When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. ⁹ She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her 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.

¹⁰ Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. ¹¹ Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.

Dear God, I find the need to hide her nationality and family background to be interesting. Isn’t it funny (in the ironic sense) how we humans make such a big deal over race, nationality, gender, etc. You can almost see the idea of the gender issue just because men and women are sooooo different, but the fact that we make race such a big deal is somewhat puzzling.

There is good news on this, however. I don’t believe we are born with this prejudice. I remember when my son was in Kindergarten and even first grade. He had friends who were Latin and African American. They were great boys and, frankly, my wife and I were thrilled to see it. The something happened some time during first grade and into second. I don’t know if it was stuff the boys heard from their other kids, older siblings, parents, relatives, television, or what, but somewhere along the way they started to notice they had different skin pigmentation. Then we saw them starting to segregate themselves on the playground.

I work in a charitable medical and dental clinic for low-income families who are uninsured. Although roughly 40% of our patients are Caucasian, the assumption by many who visit us is that most, if not all, of the patients we see are undocumented Hispanic people. They don’t realize that there are plenty of poor Caucasians who cannot find affordable medical help. The irony is, if I were to use a broad brush to overgeneralize the races, our difficult patients who do not perceivably work hard for a living tend to be the Caucasians. More of the pain medication seekers tend to be Caucasian. We all want to think our race is “better”, but…

Father, I know that the corruption of racism is deep within my heart, but I also know that there is your hope of being able to expunge it. I really do want to be rid of it completely. Help me to do this. Help me to go back to the Garden, as it were, when my eyes had not yet been opened and the corruption of shame and ridicule had not yet come into my heart. Help me, also, to instill this spirit in my children and those who work with me.