Such a Time as Hers

On October 9, 2012, a masked Taliban gunman boarded a school bus in Mingora, Pakistan, and shot fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai in the head. The bullet that was meant to end her voice traveled through her skull and lodged in her shoulder. She was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where surgeons worked through multiple operations to save her life. The Taliban had calculated that silencing one girl would terrify millions into surrender.

They miscalculated.

Nine months later, on July 12, 2013 — her sixteenth birthday — Malala stood before the United Nations General Assembly. Her head still bore the scars. Her left ear still could not hear as it once had. Yet she spoke with a clarity that reached every corner of the chamber: "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." She went on to establish the Malala Fund, and in 2014 became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history at just seventeen years old.

When Mordecai urged Queen Esther to speak on behalf of her people, he asked a question that echoes across the centuries: "Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14). Esther could have chosen safety. Malala could have chosen silence. Both chose purpose over self-preservation.