A few nights ago it was time for bedtime snuggles and prayers with my six year old son. He started crying and asked “Why do we have to be black mummy”. I felt heart broken. But I also felt like laughing. My 13 year old daughter heard what he said and she said “why did you let him hear about that mummy?”. I told her to shhhsh and I went on to ask my son “would you rather be white and be the bad person? Or would you rather be black and lay you life down like Christ did?”. He said “I don’t know, but I definitely don’t want to be the bad person”. So responded with; Being white is nothing, and being black is nothing. The heart you have is what makes up everything. if you have a bad heart, you’ll be bad. If you have a good heart, only good things will come from there. The heart has no color (or maybe it’s red. I don’t know).

My son is only six, so getting in-depth into this conversation was a tricky thing. What I wanted to tell him was that the heart makes up everything. Christ said “it’s not eating with unwashed hands that makes a man unclean. It’s the things that come out of him that makes him unclean”. For out of the heart comes all forms of evil and immorality, and these are the things that make a man unclean.

Matthew 15: 18-20 – “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

It’s funny that post corona, we are very quick to wash our hands, but how do we begin to wash our hearts of the very things that defile us in the worst way?

If men were blinded to color, it wouldn’t be racism, it would be tribalism, or xenophobia, or sexism, even pedophilia. Each one is a form of HATE deep seated and rooted in the heart of man.

Today, as African Americans fight to break free from the bondage and weights of racism, Africa begs for her men to stop raping and abusing her women and children! You won’t see any riots in the streets for these, because the African culture itself has deep roots in an ancient evil.

When some read the story of Noah and the Flood, they conveniently forget that the story says God wiped them out because they were evil and full of all kinds of vile corruption. The Bible says when God judges the world today, he will judge it for the death of Christ. How do you judge someone for the death of Christ when they didn’t live in the days of Christ? Simple; “for every innocent blood they shed”.

For me life in America has been a little bit sheltered but not in a bad way. I feel like Moses in Pharaoh’s palace because I have more white and Hispanic friends than black friends, and they’ve been kind to me (well the ones whom I call friends).

We live in a white neighborhood and We’re the only black family. But just a few days ago 2 of my white neighbors were fighting and I tried to settle them. One of them yelled at me to stay out of it and I decided to stay out. I told the other one that I’m sorry I couldn’t help. She later came back to thank me for showing her kindness. She said I was the only one who showed her kindness that day.

It’s interesting that the word kindness is what God says he would show us. It’s what he said we should show others. It’s also a very easy thing to do. It’s as easy as being laid back with no worries or baggages at all. Yet some people would rather let their minds and heart be the temple of all kinds of hateful and unclean spirits!!

I guess cleansing comes one day and a time, but I pray that when the end comes, we all find the grace to stand before him without guilt or remorse. I pray he says to each of us that “when I needed help you were there. When I was naked you were there to clothe me. When I was hungry, you were there to feed me. When I was oppressed, you were there to lift me up”.

To end, i will quote one more of Jesus’s saying – John 12: 47-48

“As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48: There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day”

Shalom!

~GE