Friday March 1st is very special here in Wales as it’s our National Day, St David’s Day. Children go off to school, the girl’s is our National Welsh costume and the boys in their Welsh rugby shirts and everywhere people are wearing the emblems of Wales – daffodils and leaks.

Since Devolution and the establishment of the Welsh Assembly there have been calls for St David’s Day to become a National Holiday just like St Patrick’s Day is in Ireland. In fact even in America St Patrick’s Day is a holiday in cities like Boston and New York where there are large Irish communities. In Dublin on March 17th St Patrick’s Day is celebrated with a big parade but here in Wales on St David's Day concerts are held in every hall, school and community centre as we celebrate our unique Welsh identity and culture.

There are calls for more ‘holidays’ across the UK – we currently have Easter Monday, May Day, Whit sun, August, Christmas and New Year, for many not enough. People scan the history books looking for days that could be celebrated as holidays.

America has so many days on which historical events are remembered and celebrated like Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

I came across an event recently that Christians should remember and be inspired by even without the secular recognition of being declared a holiday -  February 28th, the day the National Covenant of Scotland was signed in 1638.  

The signing of the National Covenant in Scotland on February 28, 1638, at Grey friars' Church, Edinburgh, is one of the great moments in church history. It was a national document of profession to faithfulness to Christ.

What happened at Grey friars' church is simply amazing.

They met at two in the afternoon of February 28 at the church, not a large church, so most had to stand outside while the proceedings went on inside. Over 60,000 people came to a building that probably couldn't accommodate 250 people.

So the dignitaries, nobles, ministers and others who had assembled at Greyfriars signed their pledge of faithfulness to the Lord on a sheepskin measuring about 2 feet by 4 feet. Then the sheepskin was taken outside the church, and into the night the people gathered, signed their pledge of faithfulness to the Lord with their names, initials, or some even made their print in their own blood. When room for writing ran out on the front, they signed it on the back.

Twelve other sheepskins were then spread throughout the nation, with the same pledge of faithfulness to the Lord and filled with the names and initials of the people.


James King Hewison, in his book, 'The Covenanters' records the scene at Greyfriars' church as follows,   

'Torches and other lights had to be used, when the earnest men, women, and children stood lifting up suppliant votive hands to Heaven while the Covenant was being read, before it was laid upon a flat table-stone to be signed. Here we have a picture unique in Scots history -- veritably 'The Night Watch'  for any painter -- as we see manly cheeks glistering with tears, others stern  yetradiant with joy; anon a blood-stained hand rises, and shows ruddier in that umber light, for some signed with their blood, and one enthusiast also appended to his signature the words, 'till daith;' while the ruder masses were content to permit initials, crosses, marks,and blots to indicate the unity of their vows'.


What an event to remember. Could you imagine almost everyone in your city or town gathering outside a church, to sign a document pledging faithfulness to Christ? It is not likely to happen, but can you even picture it?

We can, however, pledge ourselves tofaithfulness to Christ now. We don't need the fanfare of a Covenant-signing at a church. We can write out our own covenant. We can each establish a personal commitment of faithfulness to the Lord.

We can commit ourselves to living radical lives for Jesus, to seek to live lives where our words are his words and our thoughts are his thoughts.

Let us take up Christ’s challenge in Scripture to live radical lives for Jesus.

'Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness’    Matthew 6:33.

‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it’. Matthew 7 13,14.

'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life must lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.    Matthew 16 24,25.