On June 2, 1953, in the splendor of Westminster Abbey, a twenty-five-year-old woman knelt before the archbishop of Canterbury to seal the oaths she had just sworn. “Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?” he had asked. “I will,” Queen Elizabeth had replied.

When she died on September 8, 2022, flags in Europe, Canada, and America were at half-mast. Brazil declared three days of mourning. Australia’s prime minister wept on television. Jamaica announced twelve days of public tribute. Other nations too numerous to name followed suit.

Why did she have such a profound impact around the globe? Here’s the most basic answer: because her faith in Jesus was real and deep. In her first Christmas broadcast in 1952, the newly enthroned queen asked, “Pray for me . . . that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.” In 2016 she said, “Billions of people now follow Christ’s teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them...”

In her 2020 Christmas broadcast she noted, “for me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.” She also expressed her love for the Bible: She asked, “To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn, than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?” She maintained a lifelong friendship with Billy Graham, who once wrote, “No one in Britain has been more cordial toward us than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”

An article in Christianity Today summarized her role in these words: “The Queen demonstrated how to keep one’s Christian faith personal, private, inclusive, and compassionate while serving in a global, public role under intense scrutiny from virtually every sector.”