Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Living Royally on Vacation

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Some have a new adventure every summer, others have their greatest opportunity to work during this season, and others keep with a traditional rhythm of relaxation.  Queen Elizabeth II, by no surprise, makes her annual summer journey to her castle in Scotland, Balmoral Castle.  Prince Albert bought this estate for Queen Victoria in 1852.  Seeing that the original castle was not large enough, he had a more suitable castle built 100 yards north of the original 15th century structure.  The Queen enjoys her time in this Scottish highlands spot of her kingdom, and keeps a steady calendar of official duties streaming throughout her “holiday”.

The other members of the Royal family have found some time to enjoy this lush summer tradition with The Queen, but they also seem to be scattered with their own Royal duties.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with Prince George, were in Belgium earlier this week formally recognizing the Centenary of the First World War with the King and Queen of Belgium.  Prince Harry joined his brother and family, as well.

We too found our summer plans to join us together a bit, as well as split us up for other excursions.  Travel to London, Paris, Texas Hill Country, Houston, and the grocery store all made our family summer full of adventure, relaxation and some work.  Living Royally in the summer for us parallels again with the Royal family, sort of!

Click here to view my page, Traveling Royally for a few photos of our London adventures, a list of London restaurants, and Anglican hotspots to add to your next trip to my favorite city.

Summer naturally lends itself to travel, relaxation and catching up on things left undone.  With August close to half spent, how will you make this summer a summer of Living Royally?  Or, how will you take your Living Royally to your life in fall?  What meaningful work have accomplished during your summer holiday?  It is not too late to help in a food pantry, take a meal to an elderly neighbor, or entertain the small children who live near you so their worn out mother can have a one hour holiday.

Another worthy project is to get your calendar out to not only mark your children’s/grand children’s year of engagements, but to set aside appointments for your quiet time, times of service, and times of refreshment.  It seems the Royal family has some balance between these elements in their schedules.  This is a Royal Example to follow.  The summer holiday season is not over, but it is winding down quickly.  Purpose to make the most of your fall by planning and committing to your way of Living Royally.

Happy Summer!

Happy Third Anniversary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

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Royal Weddings

I love weddings.  From the engagement to the altar there is much excitement, planning, and stress, too.  Once the day arrives, joy, hope and happiness seem to take center stage in this theater of emotions.  How true this was for the last several Royal weddings!  It takes something very important, or very special to get me up at 3:00am or 4:00am.  My memories of watching (before the crack of dawn) Lady Diana Spencer walk down the aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then viewing her son admire his bride traverse the aisle at Westminster Abbey, are priceless and treasured.  Sharing the Anglican tradition of worship made the ceremonies all the more meaningful to me.

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s Kirsty Wigglesworth via Getty images

God loves Weddings, too

God uses a wide variety of literary devices to capture our attention and illustrate who He is to us.  One of my favorite analogies is marriage as an example of how He feels, cares, and is committed to us.  After all, the first miracle Jesus performed was at a wedding!  Jesus describes Himself as the Bridegroom in Matthew 25:1-13 in the Parable of the Ten Virgins.  This is a lesson in being ready for His return.  Revelation 19:7 tells of the wedding between the Lamb and His bride who has made herself ready. Then, in chapter 21 of Revelation the bride of the Lamb is identified as the ‘Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.’  The apostle Paul understood this relationship analogy from his time with Jesus.  To the church at Ephesus Paul wraps up a marriage instruction with, “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”  (Ephesians 5:32-33)

The Old Testament lays the foundation for Jesus being the Bridegroom to the church (believers).  Isaiah says in 62:5 “As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will God rejoice over you.”

Ancient Hebrew Weddings

His chosen people, the Hebrew nation, had laws and customs given directly by God to order their daily life, as well as rituals throughout their lives in order to draw them closer to Him. There is much symbolism and great detail to the Hebrew Wedding Marriage Proposal process.  Here are a few of the most obvious analogies:

A suitor would bring something of great value in order to marry a certain maiden (Christ gave His life for us), he would then offer her a cup from which to drink.

To signify her acceptance of the marriage proposal, she would drink from the cup, thus legally binding herself to him.  Christ offers us the cup of salvation, as we drink it we are binding ourselves to Him.  (Matthew 26:18 & 26:27-28, Mark 14:13 & 14:23, Luke 22:8 & 22:20)

The bridegroom would leave his bride with some gifts for her to remember him by while he is away.  Christ left us the Holy Spirit and His many gifts by which to remember Him. (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5, Galatians 5:22-23)

Once the bride accepted the marriage proposal the bridegroom would go back to his father’s house to add a room where they would live after the wedding.  The bridegroom would continue to work on the room until his father said it was ready.  Then, and only then, he could go back to his bride’s home, marry her, and bring her home to live at his father’s house in the room he prepared for them.  Christ is doing the same thing for us!  He has gone back to His Father’s house to prepare a place for us, and only the Father knows the time when He will tell Jesus to come back to get us, His bride! (Acts 1:7, John 20:17, John 14:1-3, Mark 13:32-33)

There are more symbolic details to this process, but these are the highlights that might spark an interest to dig further.

Don’t you feel loved like a new bride?

 

Traveling Royally

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The Royal Windsors traveled to New Zealand on Monday

This week we see the Royals have made it Down Under safely on their commercial flight from London to Dubai, then to Sydney for an Air Force transfer to Wellington, New Zealand.  Across all of those miles and hours in a steel canister, Prince George came out as the perfect smiling baby in his mother’s arms!  Well done!  Today, Tuesday, the family has a day to rest before continuing their adventures in hiking, yacht racing, visiting hospitals, and taking tea, to name a few activities during their three week journey.  Their priorities as parents will be evident as they return early each afternoon to spend time George.

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(Photo: Danny Martindale, WireImage)

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(Photo: Danny Martindale, WireImage)

 

The King of Kings travels to Jerusalem on Sunday

This Sunday, Palm Sunday, we mark the day Jesus traveled to Jerusalem on a donkey as prophesied in Zechariah 9:9, “see your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  Jesus, as described in Matthew 21:5, allowed two disciples and a villager near Jerusalem to participate in this fulfillment of prophecy.  The very large crowd saw Jesus riding into town on this donkey (not a stallion, but a dinky donkey!) and immediately responded to Him as His royal subjects in reverence, awe, and enthusiasm.  I wonder how many in this large crowd traveled distances to come see this King of Kings parade down the dusty road to Jerusalem. Two years ago I traveled 5000 miles to stand in a crowd to see Queen Elizabeth II and her family parade down the Mall for her Diamond Jubilee.  I understand the desire to get a glimpse of Royalty!

Jesus’ priority was consistent with how He lived His life on earth: He came to do the work His Father had for Him to do, i.e. “for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17.  This Son has been talked about, and read about through the prophets since as early as 700 B.C. by Isaiah, and is referenced in Genesis as co-creator with God as Genesis 1:26 uses the plural pronoun “us” in identifying the creators of man.  (That is an interesting lesson of tying the Old and New Testaments together in consistent harmony.)  Isaiah uses titles such as a child is born, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, a shoot from Jesse.  Isaiah 35 indicates actions this Messiah will take, like opening the eyes of the blind (John 9), unstopping the ears of the deaf (Mt. 11:14-15), and causing the lame to leap (Mt. 9:1-8).  All of these miracles were really signs to alert the prophecy educated public that this is the One, let your eyes be opened!

Jesus was meticulous in carrying out the Father’s plan.  In so doing, He accomplished all things in love.  He carefully created relationships, and maintained them faithfully.  We see how He called His disciples out of boats, an outcast woman at the well, a paralyzed man from his mat, a blind man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, and even a tax collector to be changed and follow Him.  They all were changed, and did follow Him!  As they followed Jesus, their relationship with Him grew because Jesus intentionally and continuously instructed, loved and prayed with them.  Not only was He an example to follow, but He interacted with them as The Example.

How are you being an example to those around you?  How are you intentionally interacting to deepen and grow your relationships?  What titles might be used to describe you, and what actions have you taken that mimic the One you follow?  As you travel the road to your church this Sunday, ask yourself why are you drawn there this Sunday, and what will you continue to do the next week, and the next?  The first century followers of Christ quickly abandoned Him after He entered the City.  How will you maintain your relationship with the One who came to save the world even after Easter Sunday, the easiest day to show your title as “Christian”?

Jesus shows His priority clearly in fulfilling God’s plan to save the world from sin.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge show their priority as a strong, devoted family in keeping George not only close, but apart of their day, unlike past generations in their travels.  What are your priorities, and how would anyone know by seeing your actions?

May your road to Jerusalem this week reveal the King on the prophesied donkey, and your response to Him.

“Your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5

 

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PS for some New York travel, restaurant, and photo ideas, see my new page, Regal Travel.