Few of us have experienced life without Elizabeth II being our queen. She’s not only been on our banknotes and postage stamps. She’s been in our lives. As a vicar I’ve countless times heard a grieving relative say of their loved one, ‘She was always there for you.’ Well Her Majesty the Queen has been like a member of each of our families. She was always there for us. She’s symbolised and embodied every era of our changing lives and times. God has been always there for us; and so has the Queen. And now she’s gone.
If there’s one quality that we’d all recognise in the Queen, beyond duty, selflessness and dignity, it would be humility. It’s paradoxical to speak of humility when describing a person who spent her life in palaces and grandeur, but the Queen never sought status, recognition, fame or celebrity for herself; she always held her office as a gift from God, and understood her role to being a blessing to all her people, not just in the UK, but around the Commonwealth.
It’s not too grand to say she modelled her life on that of Christ himself. As St Paul says, Christ did not regard his exalted status as something to be exploited, but emptied himself. The queen emptied herself into her role within the constitution, to be consulted to encourage and to warn. How many times over 70 years have we as a nation and a world had reason to be proud and grateful for her calm head in troubled times. How few of us have ever truly known her opinions and inclinations, and what a testimony that is to her discretion and impartiality! And yet one thing we all knew, because she repeated it explicitly each Christmas: her uncomplicated, humble faith in the God of Jesus Christ, guiding her embrace of all the kinds and conditions of people over whom she reigned. Has anyone ever grown old with such dignity as her? Has anyone ever borne more faithful witness to the constancy of God?
Revd Dr Sam Wells
