Little Miss Splendid - Roger Hargreaves

Nothing was too good for Miss Splendid. She lived in a huge house surrounded by large gardens. Her bed was enormous with silk sheets and silk pillowcases. She had a gold bath and silver plates. Yes, she was splendid. At least she thought so, she thought a lot of herself, in fact that’s about all she thought of.

One day she went for a short walk into town and on the journey, she met Mr Small who greeted her by raising his hat and saying, “Good morning”. Miss Splendid was rather rude and walked past him while thinking that he was a rather common little man. When she reached town, she spotted a terrific hat in the window of the hat shop. She marched into the shop and announced that she wanted to try on the hat. “I look absolutely magnificent.” She marched out of the shop wearing the hat and saying, “Send me the bill.” It was time to return home. Unfortunately, her hat was too big to go through the taxi door, so she set off to walk home showing everyone how splendid she was.

She was so full of herself and thought she was the most important person alive. Instead of watching others she watched herself in the mirror. No thought of being pleasant or kind to those who lived in the town.

And here is our human truth – we all think too much of ourselves! 

In the Old Testament part of the Bible—in the book of Esther—we read about Esther. She was a Jew who had been brought with many others as captives from their homeland to Persia. King Ahasuerus (known also as Xerxes) dismissed his queen, Vashti, because she had disobeyed him. Mordecai, who was a Jew, had adopted Esher as his daughter. The time came when she was considered to be appointed as the new queen. The king was delighted with her and made her his queen. Esther was, by all accounts really splendid—she was beautiful, rich and married to the king, you can’t get much more splendid than that!

One day when Mordecai was on duty, he overheard two of the king’s guards plotting to assassinate the king. Mordecai told Esther about it, and she told Xerxes and said the information had been given by Mordecai to her. Despite her ‘splendour’, Esther made sure she gave credit to Mordecai and not herself.

Haman, another official of Xerxes, hated the Jews. He was furious with Mordecai because he would not worship Haman. He went to the king and managed to get a decree ordering every Jew, young or old, male or female, to be killed. Again, Esther had opportunity to show true splendour but going to speak with the king without being asked meant she was liable to be killed. Mordecai reminded Esther that she would certainly die along with the other Jews. “Perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this.” So she decided to continue to show true splendour and she went to see Xerxes and invited him and Haman to come to a banquet she was preparing. Xerxes asked Esther what her request was. She was able to say that she and every Jew, including Mordecai, who had saved the king’s life, was going to be killed. Xerxes asked Esther who had given the command. Once again, she was able to put the fear aside and think of others and told the king it was his most trusted ally— Haman. Because of this Haman was the one who ended up being killed on the king’s orders.

Jesus was descended from the tribe of Judah, one of the tribes which would have been killed, and so Jesus’ tribe would have been wiped out. Esther’s action resulted in Jesus’ tribe being preserved.

In Luke 10:38-42 we read about the sisters Martha and Mary. Jesus and His disciples had been travelling and called into the home of Martha and Mary, close friends of Jesus. Martha knew that the travellers would appreciate some food and set about working in the kitchen while Mary sat with the disciples listening to Jesus. Martha was so upset and distracted by all the preparations that she went to Jesus and asked Him, “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” Jesus replied by saying at this point it was more important to listen to what Jesus has to say. Mary, again, was a real Miss Splendid.

Wonderfully, when we know Jesus, we have a Saviour who can stop our selfish Miss Splendid ways!

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.                          Hebrews 12v2

We must make sure that we are never too busy—too splendid— to spend time with Jesus.

Take time to behold Him, speak oft with thy Lord; Abide in Him always, and feed on His word.