A KING’S STORY

In his autobiography A Kings Story, the Duke of Windsor told the story of an incident at the funeral of his father, George V.

He described how his father’s body was being conveyed on a draped carriage through crowded streets of London when a mishap occurred.

The imperial crown had been placed over the Royal Standard and fastened on the coffin.  However, the jolting of the vehicle caused the Maltese cross, which surmounts the head-piece, to fall off.

‘Suddenly,’ the Duke said, ‘out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of light dancing along the pavement. A sailor, marching behind the gun carriage, picked it up, took it to his commanding officer and said, ‘This fell off, Sir. We must replace the cross.’ The officer was a little shocked by the occurrence and said, ‘Must we replaced now?’

‘Yes sir, replied the sailor, ‘The crown is never complete without the cross.’

​For the Christian, the cross is never complete without the crown.Jesus experienced the cross, but the experience would not have been complete without receiving the crown from His Father. Hebrews 12: 2 clarifies the cross and the diadem, ‘Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards, and now he sits in the place of honour by the throne of God.’

We may look for our crown down here: affirmation for the good we do, the reward of riches for hard work, being popular because we are beautiful or popular.  We do not always receive what we feel we deserve.  The praise of people is fickle at best. One minute we are the flavour of the month, the next we are cold-shouldered.

God, on the other hand, never varies in his opinion of us, we can depend on him to think well of us because of what Jesus did on our behalf.

We are looking at a competition to see who saws through a log the quickest. The winners receive a prize. It takes practise and hard work to become the winner. Competitors don’t win prizes by giving up when the going gets hard
Take courage, we are the children of God and nothing will ever change that so look to the future. We will receive our crown.  We will have all the affirmation we need then if not now.

'Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’ Galatians 6: