It's going to sound like here in just a minute that I am going to criticize the Bible

or like that.

I'm unhappy with the service that the Bible is providing.

That is not the case.

I think it's great.

I think Esther is great, but still as I've told you before, I got this thing about skipping

forward in narratives, you know, everything's exciting and you're invested in all the

characters and then a title pops up on your TV show or your movie and just says five

years later.

You're like, ah, what?

It's like I just watched everybody age in an instant, five years of their lives and

their stories and who they are, it's gone.

That hurts my heart.

I grieve it a little bit when I'm really engaged with the characters.

That's kind of one of my nightmares is that I would miss time with the people I love

and the stories I love.

And so it's difficult.

That said, I totally get why that happens in stories, though, because not every story

is trying to do what catches my eye or what I'm interested or the tangents I'd like to

run down.

Good stories are chasing down one big narrative thread.

In the book of Esther, we're about to get a significant time jump that's going to happen

...