'I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad'
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COLUMN: Food for Thought by Sandy Sutherland
We are witnessing days of great national sorrow.
In hearing the sad news emanating from Balmoral Castle and in listening to the King’s first speech, especially its poignant tribute to “darling Mama”, I found myself shedding more than a few tears.
Although the Queen was 96 years of age, her passing came as a shock after witnessing her, only two days earlier, receiving Boris Johnson’s resignation and Liz Truss being invited to form a new government.
We live, of course, in an unpredictable world. We can hardly go from January to December without experiencing tears and for some there can be Tower of Siloam type mysteries (Luke 13:4) that can’t readily, if at all, be explained and are difficult to live with. The last book of the bible, however, speaks of heaven as a place where God will wipe away every tear from his people’s eyes. (Revelation 7:17.)
God can, even now, wipe away our tears, in the sense that there is (as Rt. Revd. and Rt. Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally expressed it at the Thanksgiving service in St Paul’s Cathedral last Friday) comfort in knowing and experiencing “underneath are the everlasting arms of God”. (Deuteronomy 33:27.)
The Queen was the longest reigning monarch in British history. She employed 1200 people yet fed her own dogs. She seemed perfectly relaxed in the company of other heads of States or, say, with the residents of a care home. Only in her 90s did she drop down to a 40 hour week!
Political commentator Andrew Marr once said: “There are no reliable recorded incidents of the Queen losing her temper, using bad language, or refusing to carry out a duty expected of her.”
One can’t help but ask, “What was her secret?”
The Queen answered the question, in 2002, stating: “I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God. I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel.”
In 1985, in commenting on Jesus’ story on the Good Samaritan, she said that we should try to follow Christ’s clear instruction at the end of that story: “Go and do likewise.” Saying, in 2012: God sent his Son “to serve, not to be served”.
In her Majesty’s Annus Horribilis speech at the Guild Hall in the City of London in 1992, while she did mention the fire at Windsor, she did not dwell on her own troubles but rather showed sympathy for the difficulties of others during the recent months of worldwide turmoil.
In the Queen’s Christmas message of 2015, she said: Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ’s unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another.
Whatever we think of the Monarchy we cannot find fault with the Queen’s sincerity in fulfilling her Coronation vows, and with what she declared to Britain and the Commonwealth on her 21st birthday: “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family. God help me to make good my vow and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.”
The servant Queen and the King she served.
Sandy Sutherland is a retired Free Church minister living in Brora.
