I was reading something in one of the
on-line groups I belong to and I was taken aback when I saw a post that started
out, “Our guest speaker for today is a black man from…” I thought to myself, “Why did she have to say
he is black, does that matter at all in what he has to say?” What importance did his color play in his
words? If he is a Christian doing God’s work in growing the kingdom, how does
his color play a role in that? I guess she got some flack, because later she
retracted and said, “Our guest speaker from… (name of the organization).
When my youngest daughter was little,
whenever she would meet someone new in school or at the park or wherever, she
would always say, “mom this is my white friend or brown friend, or black friend.”
Sometimes she would say my Mexican friend or if she didn’t know what they were
she would ask them what color they were. Yes, this was embarrassing to say the
least. She wasn’t being racist or anything, all she knew was that they were not
the same color as she was. I didn’t want my daughter to grow up
misunderstanding the racial divide, so I told her, “People are people, God made
people in every color under the rainbow, which I should not have said, because
she was then looking for red, yellow, and green people.
I myself have said in conversations with
others, “this white lady or that black women, or that Mexican or Asian man.” My
mother even told me I was prejudice against anything darker than me, to which I
denied of course. I was bused to a white school in Junior High where blacks
called me an ‘Oreo,’ because I hung out with more whites than blacks, that was
hard, not being accepted by others is one thing, but to not be accepted by your
own, wow. So being fixed on race has been an issue in my life as well.
I remember years ago while I was at work
talking to a customer on the phone and we were disconnected, when she called
back she asked to speak to the colored girl. I laughed, and then asked what
color she wanted, we had all kinds working there. Another time race reared its
ugly head, I was having lunch with a friend and he didn’t want to eat anywhere
there were Hispanic cooks. He was serious, when we got to the restaurant he
went in the kitchen to see who was cooking. I thought, “Really.” Anyway, after
he dropped me off back at home and left, the Holy Spirit ask me to call him
back and ask if he thought there would be Hispanic’s in heaven. I did and he
said, as long as they don’t speak Spanish he was okay with it, and as some of
you are doing right now, yes, I laughed as well.
The truth is that the levels of color in
our skin have to do with the amount of Carotene or Melanin in our DNA. That is
what determines our complexion. If you really thing about it all of us are born
with what we consider white skin until those two components reach the correct
level of pigmentation that God intended. So today I beseech you to start
erasing the color line by opening your heart to receive everyone no matter their
color. Christians, we have got to remove the color line and start accepting people
for who they are no matter what their color, because the change we want to see
in the world should begin with the Church and not with the color that is inside
the Church. Amen.
Matthew 10:6 say, “Your kingdom come Your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.” That sounds to me like a ‘promise,’
a ‘command,’ and a ‘praise God one time moment.’ People we have a job to do. We
are called to expand the kingdom of God. How do we do that? By accepting each
and every person whom God has created, we are truly accepting God. Some even
argue concerning the color of God, who cares, He’s God. Will you not accept
salvation, because a white man or a black man gave it to you? Really? Heaven is
full of people from every walk of life; there is no color, no hatred of color,
no violence against color, heaven is one big multi-colored family, waiting for
you to enter, eternally.
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