In 2020 the State of Texas acknowledged in its Handbook of Texas, that the Karankawa Indians, the tribe that had inhabited the coast from Galveston to Corpus Christie and several miles inland more than six hundred years ago, is not in fact extinct, but has been assimilated into the State of Texas while retaining their cultural history and even some of their language. In order to escape the massacres of the tribal Indians, the Karankawa assimilated the culture of the rapidly increasing numbers of European settlers in what is now Texas and Mexico. The women and children survived and kept the memories alive as they assimilated into Texas and Mexican communities. Today there are many individuals who can trace direct Karankawa ancestry living and working in both Mexico and Texas.

In the Bible a similar fate happened to the Israelites who were sent into exile in Babylon. In effect the exiled people were hidden in plain sight as part of the larger community: “Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai (her uncle) had forbidden her to do so.” (Esther 2:10).

Throughout the story of Esther the fact that her identity was hidden even from her husband, King Xerxes, is the vehicle that drives the story and enables Esther herself to survive and makes possible Esther’s rescue of her people from the machinations of Haman who has schemed to eliminate all the Jews in Xerxes’ kingdom.

The Book of Esther is a story of a people living in exile away from the land of the Covenant with God; and of a young woman who risked her life for the rescue of her people from massacre. Esther is the very figure of a savior. She was a Jewess who hid in plain sight in a pagan country, and when her people were threatened, Mordecai said, , “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4: 14).

The Karankawa in Texas survived by simply assimilating. They retained their culture and attained another. Esther retained the rock of her culture, the God of Israel, while she assimilated when she was chosen to be Xerxes’ queen. In praying and fasting for herself and her people, Esther learned that her identity did not belong just to her culture, but to her God. Have we learned this?

Love in Him,

Prue