Sept. 25, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:
God-driven occurrences appear in the sky, timing after queen's death
Queen Elizabeth II’s death Sept.
8 and the days of mourning and celebration of her life were marked by some “God
things,” I think.
First were those rainbows that appeared shortly after the 96-year-old Queen of England’s passing was announced. A brilliant one decorated the sky over the large, round tower of Windsor Castle, Elizabeth’s home outside London, just as the British Union Jack flag was being lowered to half-staff.
And
a double rainbow materialized at Buckingham Palace, the residence where the
queen spent much of each working week, in sight of the Queen Victoria Memorial.
A statue of Victoria there is joined by representations of courage, constancy,
victory, charity, truth and motherhood – all concepts that certainly applied to
Queen Elizabeth, too.
A TV commentator remarked that it was fitting
that the queen died after the pandemic restrictions in the United Kingdom had
been lifted, enabling huge crowds to show their love and appreciation from Scotland,
where she spent her last days, to London to Windsor and on roadways in between.
That’s not to mention the line of people, peaking at seven miles, who waited
along the River Thames as long as 24 hours to file past the queen’s coffin in
Westminster Hall.
For
me, my wife, Kathy, and mother-in-law, Peggy, the timing also seemed appropriate
because Elizabeth and our friend, Iris Houghton, died just a month apart. Iris,
a 45-year-member of Amarillo’s Paramount Terrace – now Hillside – Christian
Church, was 99 when she died in Bryan. As believers, we wonder whether she
finally will get to meet the queen in heaven. Iris and Elizabeth both were
young women in London who endured German bombing and other hardships of World
War II. Elizabeth went on to become queen, while Iris married American solider
Wayne Houghton and wound up in Amarillo. (See https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/2016/07/01/sometimes-all-it-takes-faith-god/13185893007/ for my column about the very English woman
who made Amarillo her home.)
I
can’t say for sure that such occurrences were God-driven, but it makes sense
considering the obvious Christian life that Elizabeth lived. As the monarch,
she was the official head of the Church of England, but that doesn’t
necessarily make a person devout. Her words and actions did.
Queen Elizabeth II
Consider these comments from two of
Elizabeth’s Christmas messages, first in 2000:
“In his early thirties, He was arrested, tortured and crucified
with two criminals. His death might have been the end of the story, but then
came the resurrection and with it the foundation of the Christian faith.”
And in 2011:
“Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history
teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness
or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher
nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to
forgive … It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in
our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ
our Lord.”
If you’ve seen the TV series, “The Crown,” you know that the queen
met American evangelist Billy Graham when he was preaching in London in the
1950s. In Graham’s book, “Just As I Am,” he wrote, “Her official position has prevented her from openly endorsing
our Crusade meetings. But by welcoming us and having me preach on several
occasions to the royal family at Windsor and Sandringham, she has gone out of
her way to be quietly supportive of our mission. …
“I always found her
very interested in the Bible and its message. After preaching at Windsor one
Sunday, I was sitting next to the Queen at lunch. I told her I had been
undecided until the last minute about my choice of sermon and had almost preached
on the healing of the crippled man in John 5. Her eyes sparkled and she bubbled
over with enthusiasm, as she could do on occasion. ‘I wish you had!’ she
exclaimed. ‘That is my favorite story.’”
Elizabeth died just a year and a half after the love of her life,
Prince Philip, who was 99. They were
married for 73 years. Philip wasn’t the only man who had a crush on the queen,
though. My Texan dad remembers thinking she was pretty cute in her teenage
years, as did a British guy named Paul McCartney. The Beatle wrote a ditty at
the end of the “Abbey Road” album that included these lines: “Her Majesty is a
pretty nice girl, But she doesn’t have a lot to say … I wanna tell her that I
love her a lot … Someday I’m gonna make her mine, oh yeah, Someday I’m gonna
make her mine.”
The queen’s 4-year-old great-grandson, Prince Louis, had a more
serious comment last week. According to his mom, Princess Kate, Louis said, “At
least Grannie is with Great-Grandpa now.”
I believe she is.
Mike
Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from
1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be
reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com.
Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.
