As a good and faithful servant, The Queen will be welcomed into eternity

OVER recent days the words have come as fast and abundantly as the flowers which have been laid outside royal residences and public spaces across our nation, and around the world. People from the highest to the lowest in the land have sought to find the words to describe the only monarch that many of us have ever known until this moment. Words and phrases such as greatest, dedicated, passionate, selfless, committed and wonderful have been on our lips and the articles of our media.

One commentator, rightly, described her as “an incredible figure”.

Amongst all the tributes paid to our late Queen, the words “duty” and “service” have featured time and again. Queen Elizabeth II declared, after the death of her father, that her whole life, whether short or long, would be devoted to the service of us all. We can be in no doubt that that was a promise that she kept through 70 long and glorious years of her reign.

The Queen was always clear that her ability to carry out her many and varied public duties was dependent on her strong Christian commitment and the prayers of people like you and me. This was no private faith.

She spoke of it often, particularly during her annual Christmas broadcasts, and it shaped her approach to the many demands made of her. We see clearly a woman who accepted the role life had called her to play and carried it out to the best of her ability with grace, compassion and faithfulness.

Now as our servant Queen is with her servant King, Jesus, we are left to reflect and consider. In days to come life will move on, “normal service will be resumed” and we will adjust ourselves to the presence of a new monarch, King Charles III. It would be a great shame if our period of mourning did not lead us to a similar commitment, in faith, to serve the God who made and loves us. Then we too, when the time comes, will be welcomed into eternity with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”.