Beatitudes of Hope
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
BEATITUDES FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Hope for the "60 million and more” dispirited, Black bodies. We are the “the people who could fly,” descendants of the ones who reached the shore, walking on water in chains.
Hope for the grieved wombs of Black women. We are the buried, stillborn births, the babies taken and sold, the would-have-been lives of sterilized wombs, returned to the land of living to comfort and heal.
Hope for the bridled and restrained Black lives whose sweat watered the soil, whose blood fertilized the roots, and whose tears tendered every harvest. We are the generation who reaped what they sowed.
Hope for the hungry and thirsty Black sharecroppers who grew “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” We are their self-care and their rest.
Hope for the merciful Black navigators who safely guided us through the tunnels of the Underground Railroad, across the pages of the Green Book, from the back to the front of the bus, and from to the ballot box to the Oval Office. We are their North Star.
Hope for the Black ancestors whose courageous hearts took a leap and blazed a trail. We are the burning embers of their dedication, the firestorms of their convictions.
Hope for the Black musicians, artists, writers and thinkers who created works of beauty and peace. We are your living masterpieces.
Hope for the Black breaths that were suffocated, snuffed out. We are your inhalation and exhalation.
Hope for the defiled, scandalized, ridiculed, demeaned, slurred, white-washed Black stories. We will be the storytellers who speak the truth.
DOXOLOGY
Doxology inspired by Tasha Cobbs Leonard
Praise God who loves us great and small.
Praise God who hears our faintest call.
A Gracious God saves one and all.
Praise God Creator of us all.
Amen