As the Scriptures have promised, those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The crown-less Elizabeth, in a gown of monastic simplicity, hidden from view, was anointed to care for others in the power and ministry of the Holy Ghost.  She was about to receive the emblems of her authority, and “put on” the adornments of her new life.

The canopy was removed, and now, bare-headed, a vision of ancient and distant splendor and majesty, what shone through was royal “right.”  The symbols of power were about to come to her in succession, but without crown or diadem.  She received them as the one to whom they belonged in sacred honor and privilege.  The surpassing majesty of the next part of the ceremony was encapsulated in the royal motto, “Dieu et Mon Droit” . . . God is My Right.

Is there a correlation between Elizabeth on that day and us, the at-home, on-the-job members of the royal family of the Lord Jesus Christ?  Not at all that we may walk back in front of a mirror for the rest of our days, but, as Elizabeth would have to do the very next morning, to get down to the business of majesty, to understand at long last that majesty isn’t wealth or special benefits.  Majesty is the recognition and the honoring of God’s choice.

There are stories, not a few, of royal families, of kings and queens that have fled from overthrow with little or nothing more than their lives.  In a land that honors royal bloodlines, they are honored and protected.  In a land that does not, they are sometimes despised and sought out because of that distinction.  Either way, majesty sets them apart.

How much more true and enduring is the majesty that has come to us? Heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, guardians of those who know Him and of those who need Him, defenders of the Faith in all our appearance at His throne in worship and intercession, there is a job to be done.  We claim no earthly throne.  We spend our riches on those in need.  Our authority is against unseen enemies, those who come but to steal, kill, and destroy, nothing attractive but for the person who has lived in abject fear or grief or bondage. We are cloaked in humility and crowned with compassion, but we are the real thing.  We have been given power to become the sons of God, to live free from fear, to put on bowels of mercy, to obtain the promises of God, to own the mind of Christ.

Now by anointing and by proclamation, by the authority of the Church and the consent of the people, by her own Oath and Promises, Elizabeth was standing rightfully at the head of a nation, clothed in humility and about to be rightfully clothed in ancient and royal splendor, in the perfection of both humility and honor together, and she was about to receive every token of her rightful “highness” as their Guardian and Defender.

It is shining, golden imagery for us, certainly, but if we will heed it, the presentation of the Regalia may it be an abiding reminder, that we reign in the splendor and the majesty of the Holy Spirit of God, to protect, to defend, to lift up and to deliver by the Word of God and by our prayers and our love.

Sixty Years Later . . . Ian Jones photo