Crowns of Wool & Cake

Patriotic folk in my home town have been knitting woollen crowns to stick upon a postboxes, to mark the King's coronation. Similarly, at Springhead Congregational Church whereat I preached this month, someone had made a crown-themed cake. It was almost a shame to cut into it. Almost.

No matter how much skill went into the knitting and baking, these crowns will not last. One shall eventually succumb to the Lancastrian rain, the other quickly found itself in numerous stomachs. The real crown, housed in the Tower of London, is rather more permanent. Yet even that King’s crown is slowly falling apart, and his reign will end. Peter urges the Christian to look to

…when the Chief Shepherd appears, [for then] you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 1 Peter 5:4

The visible in temporal. The invisible is permanent.