There are certain distinct scents that move our senses to recollect memorable experiences, sometimes many decade's old...
Last week I was busy cleaning house, packing up family heirlooms and things collected while stationed and working on four different continents. Among the items selected to gift to my children and grandchildren was a family seal that was used many years ago. With it was a wax stick that one lit to cause it to drip on a letter or envelope. Prior to the melted wax turning cold and brittle the seal's impression was pressed firmly in the wax to clearly identify the sender and to maintain the identity and integrity of the message. I was in one of those quirky moods, alone enough to have a child "fun" moment and lit the wax, and as the smoke and aroma rose from it, my mind went back to 1948- more than sixty years ago...
My father, prior to his answering the 'call' to officership, was an aeronautical engineer, employed by SAAB aircraft at their head office in Linkoping, Sweden. We had a large apartment and in it a spacious closet that dad designated as his "home office". Due the secrecy of SAAB's aircraft design work in post- WWII Sweden, he installed two padlocks to ensure that my brothers and I, curious as we were about the aircraft photos pinned to the closet walls, didn't find access to the blueprints and using our own creative flair add more engines, wings, and landing gear.
Each evening following dinner my father would check the integrity of the locks, take the keys from a small chain fixed to his waist belt, open the closet door and enter, carrying a bulging brown weathered briefcase- I see it as clearly today as all those many years ago. He would remove large yellow packets from his briefcase, each of them sealed. Across the flap, in wax, was the Royal Swedish military insignia and stamped in large letters in Swedish were the words: 'The enclosed assignment cannot be delegated' . In a rather lofty way one could translate the message, shared as it was during the war era as; 'The Kingdom's future depends on you and how you handle this commission'.
He worked each evening huddled over the blueprints, often well into the night before turning off the closet lights. On locking up for the evening the blueprints would be replaced in the envelopes, and then he would take out his small seal with his unique identity, light the red wax stick, drip wax on the envelope lip and then place his seal to the wax. The following morning the sealed envelopes would be returned to the appropriate responsible party in the engineering department. It was understood that, as the envelopes had been sealed in wax, with the Royal insignia, the commission had not been compromised by delegating responsibility to others...
As I reflected on that experience last week my thought went to another seal, one that you and I have experienced and share. We have no doubt all sung the chorus: 'He writes the pardon on my heart' : a Royal pardon.
'Sealed again is all the sealing
Pledged again my willing heart
First to know Thee, then to serve Thee,
Then to see Thee as Thou art' (SA Song Book 591 ) Albert Orsborn
'Sealed by Thy Spirit, sealed by Thy Spirit,
Sealed by Thy Spirit eternally Thine;
Thus would I be to Thy service devoted;
Sealed by Thy Spirit, eternally Thine.'
(SA chorus section 52)
Twice in the last few days the text of Saint Irenaeus: "The glory of God is man fully alive”, has been cast in front of me in rather strange ways… I must admit that Irenaeus and his words were only vaguely known to me, but hearing them twice in the space of 4 days piqued my interest and I reflected on the words and how they relate to my own spiritual experience and expression. And I asked myself, ‘Am I fully alive to the glory of God’ living, sealed in His love to serve…as fully alive as when first marching forward with red epaulets, or when opening fire in Moscow and a few years later, in Ukraine?
The cross of Christ was both the seal that signaled to me my responsibility then and now, although there have been times when I have not been ‘fully alive to the glory of God’.
Do you remember sharing in a declaration of faith when being commissioned? The Territorial Commander or Training College Principle would have asked: ‘Do you promise faithfully to maintain and proclaim these truths?’ (the truths and principles of the old and new testament and your responsibility in proclaiming them) I would maintain that the promises made were eternal and could not then nor can they now be delegated to others. Regardless of where we worship and serve today we undertook a very special and unique responsibility on the day of our commissioning, sealed by God the Holy Spirit, one that can not be delegated.
Liverpool UKT
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