February 29

Today, I reread the Book of Judith which is in the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha are a collection of books that are not canonical in most Protestant churches. Canonical means 'accepted standard' or 'rule'. When the books of the Bible were codified in the 4th century, the Apocrypha was accepted as canonical. However, when Martin Luther and later John Calvin split away from the Catholic Church, there were books and even passages (for example, Esther) that they cut from the Protestant canon of books. The Apocrypha is not accepted as canonical in the Hebrew Bible although, just as the Mishnah and the Midrash are part and parcel of the studies of Jews, so are the books of the Apocrypha.
No Bible that I ever saw growing up had an Apocrypha in it. However, one year when I was doing a church yard sale at Church of St Andrew, someone donated an ancient family Bible and it had an Apocrypha. I couldn't sell the Bible since it was clearly historical. While I waited for someone to tell me what to do with it, I read those 'secret' books.
What I found were some fanciful books (Bel and the dragon), some military strategy books (1st and 2nd Maccabees) and The Book of Judith. Being a budding feminist, Judith spoke to me right away.
Judith was a Jewish widow in a walled city that the Assyrians were assailing. Her community loses faith with the ongoing assault. Judith, already wealthy and well-connected, decides to act. She gussies herself up, prances down to the camp, seduces and makes drunk Holofernes, the commander of the army, and then cuts his head off.
Back she goes to her city, rallies the troops and they destroy the army.
I think I loved Judith for one of the same reasons that I loved Esther. They used what they had to accomplish their goals. In both cases, they did not cover up how gorgeous they were.
Now, not being gorgeous myself, you might think I would be jealous. But actually, what I was not using or was undermining was my intellect. Somehow, I had decided that it must not be a good thing to be smart, especially smarter than the men I worked for or worked with.
Reading Judith made me realize that God made me smart just like he made Judith beautiful. And he made us this way for a reason. I know this does not sound humble and if taken on face value you might think I am, as my mother would say, 'too big for my britches'. But what I really mean is that I quit hiding and dancing around my brain.
So that brings me to the question, what did God give you that he expects you to use for him and are you using it?
Blessings on your off day of reading.