[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 25/Sep/2022]
Like many others, I have been moved and touched by the devotion shown by the hundreds of thousands of people who have queued for many hours just to have a brief glimpse of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth. My foster daughter X, who knows how much I admired the Queen, asked if I wanted to go to London to see the coffin. I said that nothing would persuade me to stand in a queue for hours on end, as I find queues and crowds extremely stressful.
Instead, I would wait until I got the chance to meet the Queen in heaven. X replied, somewhat provocatively: “If she’s there”. From what I know of the Queen I have no doubts on that score, but I told X that I was glad she had not expressed doubts about me getting to heaven. She replied: “You’re a good person”, but I pointed out that Jesus had told the “good” people of his day, the religious leaders, that prostitutes and tax collectors would enter heaven before them. It is our faith in Jesus, not our good works, that ensure we enter heaven.
The Queen is just one of many people I look forward to meeting in heaven. It will be wonderful to see my parents again, as well as friends I have lost. There are others who I never knew on earth but whose books I have read and would love to meet, like Jane Austen, George Elliot and Elizabeth Gaskell. Then there are all the great heroes and heroines of faith who have gone before us, like Abraham, Joseph, Deborah and many others.
Yet meeting these people pales into insignificance besides the prospect of seeing Jesus, face to face. We loved our Queen because of her selfless service to her people, yet she was just following the example of her King Jesus, whose presence she is now enjoying as she enters her well-earned rest.
As Paul said to Timothy shortly before his death:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4 v 7, 8 [NIVUK]
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Contributed by Helen Ruffhead; © the Author
