Crowning Wisdom: Monaco

I really had to puzzle when I wrote this piece about the Crown of Monaco. I am still unclear whether the object actually exists, or whether it is just a symbolic representation of the line of the Monegasque family which occupies the throne. Perhaps there is some convention that a prince does not formally wear a crown, unlike a king or emperor. The object certainly appears on the principality’s flag, but that does not mean it must exist as a tangible object, in the same way that the lions on our royal coats of arms do not really exist, nor the dragon on the flag of the Welsh. I shall be very pleased if a better informed reader is able to offer some firmer information than my own research has been able to yield.

Neither do I know if the crowns given to believers within the scriptural record are figurative or literal. In Revelation 4, for example, the heavenly worshippers ‘cast their crowns before the throne’, though it is worth remembering that Revelation is awash with symbolism and deeper meaning (the Lamb before whom they fall has seven eyes, for example).

Whether the crowns be literal (the splendour of which shall excite some) or metaphorical (the absence of their weight pleasing to others), I cannot tell. Suffice to say that the heaven which Christ has prepared for His people shall be perfectly perfect, better in every way to what we have known below or even imagined possible- with or without crowns.