Violet Crawley is the octogenarian Dowager Countess of Grantham, a fictional character well known by fans of the hit series Downton Abbey. The matriarch of the Crawley family, she is full of wit and a stickler for upholding the traditions and mores of the British nobility.
What no one knows is that in her younger days she had an affair with a Russian prince named Kuragin. After the Bolshevik Revolution Prince Kuragin ended up in England, where he tries to renew his relationship with Violet, even at their age. While tempted, she refuses Kuragin advances.
However, Violet goes farther than rejecting the prince. She locates the Princess Kuragin in France and brings her to England. Penniless, the Princess is housed, fed and provided clothing fit for a royal by Violet.
The Princess is not particularly grateful , however. She has a long memory of Violet’s attempt to steal her husband.
Princess Kuragin is received in England after being rescued by Violet
The Dowager Countess explains to her close friend Isobel what transpired between the Kuragins and her when she was in Russia during her youth. Violet tells her that she and the Prince fell madly in love and intended to elope.
Violet Crawley and her friend Isobel
“At the appointed hour we started for the port to set sail in the Prince’s yacht,” she explains to her friend. ” But my maid betrayed us to the Princess, who set out in pursuit. She caught up with our carriage, wrenched the door open and pulled me out.
Isobel asks, “Pulled you out. By your arm?”
Violet replies,”Oh, by my arm, by my hair, by my leg. Anything to get me out of the coach.
“Then she flung me into the cab that brought her and sent me back to Lord Grantham.”
Isobel replied, “So she saved you from ruin.”
Violet answered, “From ruin. From the loss of my children and from a life in the shadows. Within a week I felt she had pulled me back from the brink of the abyss.
“And now at last you see we are even. She saved me, and I saved her.”
Violet added in her wry fashion, “I will never again receive an immoral proposition from a man. Was I wrong to savor it?”
Prince Kuragin meets the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley after decades apart
When Violet hopped into that coach with Prince Kuragin, she veered off the right path. However, being tempted to follow and actually taking the wrong road in life is the way of mankind according to the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans in the Bible.
But who determines the right path to take? According to the Bible, it is God who is the only One qualified to decide what is right and what is wrong.
One of Paul’s teachings is that God is righteous, but that men are not.
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3: 11-12)
Paul also teaches that God will judge humans for their unrighteousness.
In his exposition of this section of Romans, Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee explains that God as Judge has a list of charges against mankind. One of them is that “they’ve all gone out of the way. That is, they have detoured. They have left the way they knew was right.
Furthermore, McGee notes that mankind knows they have gone astray. “Most ancient tribes have a remembrance and have a tradition that way back at one time they knew the living and true God, ” he says.
So whether we are English or Russian or American or Chinese, we know in our hearts the difference between right and wrong and we know in our hearts that we are rebelling against God. . But McGee says this is party because we aren’t interested in what God says.
“Believe me, man hasn’t found out very much on his own about God. He hasn’t advanced very far in that regard in that direction because he is going the wrong way. He’s going away from God.”
Its easy, however, to generalize the accusations the human flight from God and His plan to and not bring the charge home to our own lives. McGee holds his audience accountable.
“Now I am talking to folk right now who are listening to me and you know you are not doing what you ought to do. Furthermore, you are not GOING to do it even though you know what it is. You’ve gone out of the way.”
In Violet’s case, she was rescued from her wrong choice by an angry wife who was impacted by it. However, Princess Kuragin had no love for her husband’s consort, and showed it through her violent treatment of her.
In God’s case, H provided deliverance through a different method. The violence fell on Him.
Jesus took the punishment for us and sent us packing to freedom unharmed. All we have to do is believe that He did this, accept His offer of forgiveness, and allow Him to direct our paths in the future.
Our penchant is to not take Jesus up on his offer, though. But it’s the only way to avoid a ruinous life and eternity. Not only that, choosing Jesus’s path is the way to happiness.
Decades ago, an artist better known for his negative and prophetic song “Eve of Destruction” authored another song about his joyful walk with Jesus. Barry McGuire penned the following words regarding its impact on him:
Why it’s a happy road
That I’m travelin’ on
I just can’t help myself
Ya got me singin’ a happy song
Since your Son came shinin’
I know it won’t be long
Until your happy road
Is takin’ me home.
Staying on the road with Jesus is preferable if you are already there, but if you have left it, it’s time to head the other direction with Him.
Slow News Day 