Perfume is Pleasure

“Are you teaching this morning?” I asked my husband, a sometimes Sunday school teacher,  when I heard the alarm clock. “Yes, and I really should have asked you to help me with this one.” Turns out, the book of Esther was up, and interactive scent exercises were part of the lesson plan. I scrambled about for frankincense and a variety of essentials. What would Esther do?

You know the story. Nice Jewish girl saves her people from persecution with good perfume. Highlights of this scriptural tale of redemption: “Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics…and this is how she would go to the king…In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem…She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name…Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.”

The instructional catch was sketchy, but adequate justification for our guessing games with incense, fruity woody and floral scents on paper blotters. As it happens, nowhere in the Biblical account does the name of Yahweh explicitly appear but we know he is there, working behind the scenes. By the same token (play along here), all of our scent strips looked identical, but we know they are scented, and clearly unique. God and curriculum designers work in mysterious ways!