Mike Owens
The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. She was built during the Depression years, and was the only exception in the liner business to make a profit during those years. Built by the Scottish shipbuilders on the Clyde for Conard, the Queen Mary was started just before Christmas, 1930. Her name was originally to be Victoria, but when Conard went to King George V to ask for permission to name the ship after England's most illustrious Queen, the King misunderstood and allowed them to name it after his wife, Mary, Queen Consort.Early in the 1940's, the Queen Mary was outfitted as a troop carrier, carrying as many as 16, 683 troops on one crossing in 1943. By 1947, having survived the war, they were returned to Conard for restoration.
The Queen Mary was the epitome of regal class, courageous effort, stately being. She was highly praised by all, a brilliant star in the crown of the Conard line. Through four decades and a world war she served until she was retired in 1967 to anchor in Long Beach, California as a floating hotel and museum.
During the conversion, her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more then thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.
What a fitting example of something Jesus said in Mt 23:27-28;
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
What Jesus was saying was that the Pharisees only had the appearance of holiness. Much as the smokestacks of the Queen Mary, they were to be looked up to, the people amazed at their beauty and grace on the outside, but there was no substance to their godly lives.
But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have
rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1Sa
16:7