As the world waits for the funeral of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, our Children and Families Minister, Debbie Martin, shares how perhaps one of the most influential people in our lifetime, humbly served her country and her King.
How marvellous that the Queen, and we as a country, were able to share her 70th jubilee this year. We learnt that she enjoyed the odd marmalade sandwich, indeed she kept a secret sandwich in her handbag!
The Queen and her handbag travelled everywhere together.
In the last photograph of the late Queen, she still carried her handbag on her arm, just like she carried Jesus in her heart, anywhere and everywhere she went.
Queen Elizabeth was not born to be Queen, yet she embraced the position, the way of life, duty, and service. Her life was a sacrifice of service to others. She encountered all the challenges that each one of us face each day, and even in her later years, travelled all over the world, kept important engagements, and met and celebrated with so many people.
As Queen, she was on public display every time she stepped out of the Palace on an engagement. She was unable to pop to the corner shop, go shopping with her children or simply just go for tea and cake at a local café. I have recently learned that she had another title, Queen of Scots, she united the kingdom. She was a consistent figure in our lives. Even if you are not a royalist, you cannot help but feel the loss of a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, auntie and great auntie.
Our late Queen Elizabeth was all these things to her family.
Jesus was the Queen's rock, anchor, her all. In serving the country, it was our heavenly King she was serving.
Queen Elizabeth was keen to meet God so that she could lay her crown at His feet and declare Him as her King and she His humble servant.
On Monday we will mourn at her funeral as we will have for the last 10 days since her death.
Grief and sadness can come on us like a cloak. We lament and are sad because of the great love we had for the person who has died. Each of us experience sadness as our worlds' stop for a moment in time, as the person we love passes from this world into the next. There is no easy journey with grief, it will ebb and flow, and be different for each of us. The outpouring of love for our late Queen is her legacy, just as we are the legacy for those who we have loved and lost.
Thank you, Your Majesty, for being a servant, Queen. May you know God’s peace and rest forever.
God save the King.
Amen
Debbie, Children & Families Minister
Click here to light a candle and remember the Queen online
Submit a message of condolence online here.
Come to our Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving, this Sunday 18th September, 3pm at St Paul's Church, Tiverton
Remembering her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Join us for a time of silence, prayer and song to give thanks for the life of our Queen.