BUT A POOR REFLECTION: Comparing the Palace Gates

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Comparing the Palace Gates

Queen Elisabeth's palace gate (Buckingham Palace, London, United Kingdom) and Queen Beatrix's palace gate (Paleis Noordeinde, The Hague, Netherlands)

"Je Maintiendrai," "I will maintain," is the motto of the House of Orange and Nassau, the Royal Family of the Netherlands.

3 comments:

Carol Douglas said...: I've been interested in William of Orange and the Huis van Oranje-Nassau ever since writing about Bruegel with John. I never realized before this what an impact the Dutch Rebellion had on the specific business of representing God in art (even though I "understood" the divide in art after the Protestant Reformation in an academic way). Now I think the great Dutch church interiors are kind of indirectly related to the Holy of Holies... God present but not visible. I wish I knew a writer who was sound on this stuff. Any suggestions?

I'm slogging through Winston Churchills "History of the English Speaking Peoples". Good, bad or indifferent, the English monarchs would be far easier to track if half weren't named Henry and the other half named Edward, with a few Johns and Richards thrown in for good measure. Elizabeth II just became the longest-reigning English monarch. I'd argue her namesake, Elizabeth I, was the greatest English monarch. I know nothing about your Queen Beatrix. Perhaps I should learn more.

I never understand why every person who believes in past lives always imagines they were once Richard the Lion-Hearted or Cleopatra. I am certain that had I lived a past life, I would have been a peasant huddled against a cold stone hearth.; 12/23/2007 6:37 pm
Paul said...: I don't know that much about church interiors, allthough I love Pieter Saenredams paintings (I have a book with some of his painting of Haarlem's Grote Kerk / St Bavo (Haarlem is my place of birth). If you Google with these words: grote kerk haarlem saenredam you can find some great pictures and web links!
Queen Beatrix is very popular in our country. There are some hard-line republicans who don't like the idea of a monarchy but even these people would like to have Beatrix for president ;-)

There is a lot of information available on the Internet about our royal family (just look at "Queen Beatrix" in Wikipedia) and I can also recommend a visit to the official web site www.koninklijkhuis.nl (left upper corner of your screen: English); 12/23/2007 9:49 pm
Carol Douglas said...: After reading about Queen Beatrix I think the British royals would do well to emulate her. I saw a photo of her with her late husband; she looked relaxed and happy, like one's aunt dancing at a family wedding. There is something more professional and business-like about your monarchy, and it must have given your country a sense of identity during the dark days of German occupation.

The United States has never had a royal family; if our government collapsed how would we continue to be Americans? (I'm not advocating that--trust me, I'm anything but a monarchist--I'm just speculating aloud.)

Ottawa, the Canadian capital to which she was evacuated during WWII, is about four hours northeast of us.; 12/27/2007 6:14 pm

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God loves us

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

Max Lucado - He Chose the Nails

Sadhu Sundar Singh

I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

Oswald Chambers

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)