Thought for Monday

 Isaiah 46:4 (new living translation)

I will be your God throughout your lifetime – until your hair is white with age.  I made you and I will care for you.  I will carry you along and save you.

 

What a strange time just now.  Her majesty the Queen that has been an ‘ever-present’ throughout most of our lives, is no longer with us.  When we saw the pictures from Balmoral last week after she was welcoming yet another prime minister, she looked such a bright, but frail wee soul and I’m sure a lot of our hearts just went out to her there and then.  When the news filtered out a few days later that she had passed away, there was still an element of shock that she had passed so quickly.

I have seen many touching contributions online and on tv where she is shown meeting back up with the Duke of Edinburgh or walking towards the light with a corgi on its lead in one of her hands and Paddington taking the other and many more besides, all produced with love and respect.  On the other hand, I have not seen any illustrations at all when it is Jesus that is waiting to greet her, not even one.

Throughout the reign of our late Queen, she has frequently testified to her faith in God and in the risen Lord.  In her first ever Christmas broadcast to the nation, she offered up the following prayer: 'Pray for me … that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’  As she said in her Christmas broadcast in December 2000: ‘For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.’  The Queen took her place with all of humankind as a sinner and believed that she needed forgiveness that she could never earn. Her hope was in Christ and the salvation that he offers to everyone.  She recognised that it was Christ’s death on a cross which satisfied God’s wrath against human sin, and His resurrection that brings hope, so she embraced the peace with God that comes through faith in Him.

Some may say she had a privileged life, some may say she was a servant to her nations but the true measure of her reign was that she regularly acknowledged her Christian faith in front of the many or the few.  This is an option that is available to us all whether poor or wealthy and if we could do this as frequently as our beloved late Queen, I’m sure the Lord would approve.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we are reminded on this sad occasion that our time on this earth is finite and that some will have many years while others will have few.  Help every single one of us use the time we are allocated effectively in your service.  We especially pray for our new King, whose routine will change greatly from what he was used to.  Help him adapt and aspire to carry out his new duties in a caring, respectful and conscientious way as in the example set throughout his and our lives by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth. Amen