The one who writes history is the one who shapes history, for the pen is often mightier than the sword.
Too often, those who have written history have written out key people, places, and events. Sometimes certain elements have been left out inadvertently, but other times it has been quite deliberate.
Today, during a presentation at my church entitled, "A White Man's Journey into Biblical Black History," Joel Freeman, PhD shared about his journey into a key part of Biblical and world history that has been overlooked, and in some cases, deliberately covered over.
The audience appreciated his research and desire to push the dialogue regarding the minimilization of Black history and Black contributions. One participant, however, expressed concern about society's double standard that has created an environment whereby a White man might find more success sharing about Black history than a Black man would. Also, the participant addressed the underlying awkwardness some Blacks might feel in having to learn their own history from a White person.
Still, another participant openly shared about his pre-judgment of a couple of White persons he saw on the bus, whom he had no idea were on their way to Joel Freeman's seminar just as he was!
It was refreshing to be in a safe environment--the house of the Lord--where all of God's children could come together and share openly about a major blemish in our collective history.
Slavery, racism and prejudice have left lingering affects on all of God's children, and until we collectively lift those wounds to the light of Christ, we will never experience the unity God expects from us.
Those of us who are of African-American heritage must be committed to teaching our children about their entire history--as Judeo-Christian African-American people. To gloss over any part of that description is to deny the divine design that God chose for us.
We certainly should not rely on jaded history books or constrained educators to teach our children about their heritage. We have no right to be angry about what's missing from the history books when we understand that the title tells us exactly what we're going to get--his story.
We are responsible for telling our story--to future generations, and to the world. If we get busy telling our story, perhaps our young men would find less to be angry about and more to be proud about. Perhaps they would spend less time trying to kill the man in the mirror and allow the Great I AM to show them who truly they are.
If we would take our children on a very basic geography journey, perhaps they would learn that the people who came from Jesus' part of the world did not have blonde hair and blue eyes like those persons from in the Greco-Roman regions. With a little history lesson, our children might just be able to see Jesus as not Black or White, but as--Jesus.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, let's take time to truly reflect on all of what He was, all of what He became, and all of what He is to us. Let's open our hearts, minds, spirits and eyes beyond what we think we know His history to be and ask Him to reveal to us HIS story.
BNcouraged!
Rev. Karen
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