Today’s Scripture Reading (June 11, 2018): Job 21
My favorite moment from last month’s Royal
Wedding of Harry and Meghan, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was the moment
when the newlyweds reappeared, paused, and the gathered sang “God Save the
Queen.” (I get it, I am weird.) My wife wondered how many times Queen Elizabeth
had heard the song. I marveled at the privilege that the gathered had of singing the song in her presence
(to be honest, I would love the opportunity. I have sung the song many times,
but never in her presence.) And I was a little disappointed at the lackluster performance of many of the family
members in the singing of the anthem. Maybe they had sung the tune too many
times to even fake enthusiasm in the song.
But the moment also presented the viewer with
one of the mistakes of the wedding, and we do love it when there are mistakes
even at Royal Weddings. Meghan forgot to curtsey. Harry bowed his head to the
Queen, but Meghan was fiddling with her dress, trying valiantly to get it
straight; there was no curtsey, which is
required of all people in the presence of the Queen – even her family.
Now, I may be a man, but I get it. A lot is
going on at a wedding. And I have often informed prospective brides that
on this day, they are the Queen. The rest of us will do our best to work around
them. But then again, I have never performed a wedding with the Queen actually
in attendance.
But I have another question about the Wedding
flub which might be more important. My question is this, did the Queen even
notice? The rest of us can go over the replays
and argue about whether there was or was not a curtsey, but I would like to
know did the Queen even care, or was her attention fixed on her grandson, whom
I am sure she loves very much? Were her eyes so filled with tears of
pride at the man that he had become, that she would have missed the curtsey
even if it was present? Did she understand the stress of this day on Meghan;
that the lack of acknowledgment of her presence was both understandable and forgivable?
I will never know, but my guess is that
the missed curtsey was not discussed
inside the Royal family. It is just something that those of us who like to
gossip on the outside found important.
Job is struggling with the actions of God. He comes close to questioning the
response of God to him in this situation. Why is it that the wicked sometimes
prosper, while the good get little notice? But then he pauses with this realization.
God is God, and he will do whatever it is
that he will do. We can question his
actions from the outside, but we do so with very little understanding. We are
nothing more than gossips standing on the outside watching the actions of our
sovereign. We have to trust that God is doing what he knows is best.
At this moment, Job is building a character
that will carry him through the rest of his life. He is becoming even more of a
righteous man than he was before his trials began. And he is gaining an understanding
of God, something that his friends continue to lack. The whole story of Job
contains a lesson about what God considers to be important. And in the end,
what he considers to be important is what really
matters.
And what Queen Elizabeth II considered to be
important on the day of the Royal wedding might be a mystery to most of us
looking on from the outside. But I am sure that the family understands her view from the second row. And
Job is in the process of gaining that kind of understanding of God. He is
becoming part of the family.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 22
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