I get hundreds of unwelcome emails every day. I have to scan the junk because my protective software often sends vital messages to the dump too.

A couple of weeks ago, one came from Her Majesty, the Queen of England. Don’t get me wrong, if Queen Elizabeth had really emailed me, it would have been grand. She didn’t.

A bogus barrister offering me a boatload of her bucks did.

Where do these scammers get these ideas? How can we get the gullible to stop responding? How do we stop these crooks?

These emails waste a lot of my time. Their manipulative authors make me cranky. They use Jesus (really – don’t we all get the ones that read: Beloved Sister/Brother in Christ? I think this could count as using the Lord’s Name in vain!), missing children, money, and now the Queen to get our attention hoping we’ll respond and give them our bank account information. They do their best to hit us where they think we might be most vulnerable. Their disrespect for Jesus bugs me badly. I didn’t like them using the Queen either.

As I hit the delete button I said to my computer screen, “I don’t want the Queen’s wealth, but a cup of tea with her Highness would really be something!”

Then my imagination took over. What would it be like to meet her?

I used to know how to curtsey – I learned how to do this with a book on my head when I was about 5 years old. It’s a skill I’ve never used and one I’d have to re-learn. Really, how does one greet the Queen? I live in a world of handshakes and hugs. Both seem out of place when I think about meeting her. Besides, my palms would be sweaty. Maybe we’d both wear gloves – I did that too when I was a little girl going to church on Easter morning. The curtsey might not go very well either – balance is a bit tricky sometimes. I’d better just stay home. Oh yeah – I wasn’t really invited.

All of these thoughts raced through my mind as I scanned and deleted over 300 crud-mails that early morning.

When I finished, I called out to Jon, “The Queen of England wants to make me wealthy.” His only response was, “Yeah right. Done deleting yet?  It’s breakfast time.”

I walked upstairs wondering what her Majesty would be having for breakfast in her part of the world and then for the first time in my life I prayed for her, “Dear Lord, be with the Queen today.”  I believe He was.