The Feast of Purim

This week is not only Thanksgiving, it is also the feast of Purim.

Let's look at Esther  chapter 9:

1. On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. 

17. This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. 
18. The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. 
19. That is why rural Jews--those living in villages--observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other. 
20. Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 
21. to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 
22. as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor. 
23. So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. 
24. For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 
25. But when the plot came to the king's attention, he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 
26. (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 
27. the Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. 
28. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never cease to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of them die out among their descendants. 

This week of Thanksgiving it is good to remember the joys and blessings of the past as well as the goodness of the present.

As we remember those good times of days gone by, let's give thanks for all those who were so instrumental in our lives. If it is at all still possible, get in touch with those who have blessed you in years gone by.

Be a blessing to them during this week of remembrance and thanksgiving!