Today, Jewish people gather at synagogues throughout the world to hear the book of Esther. They enjoy festive costume parties and lively plays reenacting the Purim story. Audiences cheer at every mention of the story’s heroes and boo whenever Haman’s name is read. Celebrants stomp their feet and rattle noisemakers to completely “blot out” the name of Haman.

The most popular food tradition at Purim is hamantashen (HAH-men-TAH-shen), triangular cookies with tasty fillings and said to resemble Haman’s hat or his ears.

Oddly, God is never mentioned in the book of Esther, but His fingerprints are all over the story. In it, we see that He is faithful to place people in the right places at the right times to protect and care for His children. Like Esther, we can trust God when He presents us with a task, even when we feel inadequate for it. It’s possible He stationed us where we are “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). And we can know that if He’s the one asking us to do it, He will be with us as we do.