I woke up with a profound sense of sadness at the passing of our Queen.
One of the things I will miss the most is how unashamed she was to speak not just of her faith in general but of Jesus in particular.
Over the last 10 years she has spoken just over 7000 words to the Commonwealth through her Christmas Day Broadcasts.
She mentions Jesus / Christ / Jesus Christ on 19 occasions - that’s more than almost anything else.
Yet how many times have we heard of Him in the TV coverage since her death? In the four hours of coverage we watched last night I heard just one brief mention in general to ‘her faith’.
If you want to understand the secret behind a life lived with such incredible integrity, humility, commitment and service then you’ll find it was in fact no secret. She told us all the time. It was Jesus. What made the Queen such a wonderful Queen is that she knew the ultimate King.
And that’s good news. Because while the Queen sadly is dead the King is alive. Just as he was the foundation of our Queen’s life we can also know him as the foundation of ours. I believe that the Queen would want us not simply to remember her, but through her to remember, and come to know, the King that she served.
How can I be so sure? Because she said so herself.
In her Christmas broadcast ten years ago she concluded:
‘In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:
O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us we pray
Cast out our sin
And enter in
Be born in us today
It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.’
Written by Michael Ots.
