Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Tom Felton, and I titled Our Reading Strange Places.

God, why is this happening?

Is this really your plan for us?

As a husband and dad of young children,

those questions and more swirled in my mind as I wrestled with the serious cancer diagnosis.

What's more, our family had just served with a missions team that had seen many children receive Jesus as their savior.

God had been bringing forth evident fruit. There was so much joy.

And now, this? Esther likely poured out questions and prayers to God after she was plucked from a loving

home and thrust into a strange new world in Esther, Chapter 2. Her cousin, Mordecai, had raised her as

his own daughter after she had been orphaned,

but then she was placed in a king's harem and eventually elevated to serve as the queen.

Mordecai was understandably concerned about what was happening to Esther, but in time,

the two realized that God had called her to be in a place of great power for such

a time as this, a place that allowed her people to be saved from destruction.

It's evident that God providentially placed Esther in a strange place as part of his perfect

plan.

He did the same with me.

As I endured a lengthy battle with cancer,

I was privileged to share my faith with many, many patients and caregivers.

What strange place has he led you to?

Trust him.

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