If there was one thing I could erase about our nation’s history it would be the slave years. It is hard to believe that once upon a time there were people in our world that looked at another person’s skin and considered that person to be something other than human. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, you would have thought that things would change. Not overnight, but you thought gradually race relations would improve. However, definitely into the ’60s and in some places today, race relations are still fractured.
In 2020 we observed white police officers hurting or killing black suspects and because our country didn’t improve in race relations from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, riots, protests, and disunity ensued. What would it take for everyone in our country to see human beings as opposed to color or race? What would it take for every American to realize we are all created equal by the same God?
As I reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the impact he had on race relations in our country, I am mostly struck by his bravery and courage. His message was not a popular one. I have a hard time saying anything that would land me in a jail cell even for one night. He was willing to say things that would eventually have him assassinated. I watched the movie Selma and then Googled to make sure I was watching the truth, and could not believe the brutality of one human toward another when the group was crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge.
I could go the direction of Paul and the brutality he experienced in spreading the Gospel with this article. Instead, I think the direction I will go is to share this; in the book of Genesis God said let us make man in our image. He didn’t specify color. He just said man. Human beings. We are all made in God’s image. Secondly, Jesus said in John 15:35 your love for one another will prove to the world you are my disciples. And in the book of first John the Apostle told us that love comes from God because God IS love.
Pray for our brothers and sisters of color today. It truly would be a dream come true for all of God’s children to be seen as such. Take a listen to the speech once again.