It was April 8, 1915, the birthday of Albert, king of the Belgians, and a sad day it was for that downtrodden country! For their land had been overthrown and ruined by a foreign conqueror, their king dethroned, and the great day was not allowed to be honored. No guns saluted, no bells rang, no Belgian flags waved cheerfully in the breeze; there was no holiday for the boys and girls!
All was silent and severe!
People gathered in the streets at Antwerp and stood oppressed and gloomy, speaking in low voices of the woeful tragedy.
Their city had been bombarded for two dreadful days, and thousands had fled by sea and land from the enemy who had flocked in, taking charge of all their food and making life as difficult as possible for those who remained. And today, this day, was the birthday of their brave king! How could they honor it and him?
It seemed quite impossible, for foreign soldiers and foreign laws kept all in terror of their lives. To show the slightest patriotism would mean imprisonment or even death.
As the people stood talking quietly together, the front door of one of the houses in the square opened and three little girls walked out hand in hand, dressed in the colors of the Belgian flag — black, yellow and red.
The crowd looked at them; they did not dare to cheer, but they understood. This was, of course, to celebrate the day, something to delight their eyes and encourage their hearts, to be seen if not heard.
The children walked in silence through some of the main streets, round the city and quietly back home again, saying in picture language, “Long live King Albert!”
Had they been boys they would probably have been imprisoned, but their overbearing conquerors had not the heart to touch three gentle little girls.
Perhaps you boys and girls can guess what I am going to say. Satan is the prince of this world, and he will not, if he can help it, allow the Lord Jesus Christ, the “rightful heir and Lord of all,” to be honored or spoken about.
Perhaps you have found this out already at school. But if you truly belong to the Lord Jesus, then His Spirit dwells in your heart, and “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4:44Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4), and He will give you courage to confess His name. Just as the little Belgian girls honored their dethroned king by wearing his colors, so you can honor your rejected Lord by your behavior, your dress, by that which you know would please Him. You can seek to display His banner. Psalm 60:44Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. (Psalm 60:4) reads, “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.”
So that every child who has taken the Lord Jesus as his or her Lord can, day by day, show to all at home and at school whose they are and whom they serve by doing what is pleasing to Him.
ML 11/26/1961