Today isn’t a day to simply binge watch HGTV. It’s more. It’s the birthday of a man who stood for racial equality, freedom, justice, and love. It’s the birthday of a man our children and our children’s children need to know about. A man whose convictions made great strides. We celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the advancements he made in our communities for racial reconciliation while we embrace the burden that there is much to be done.
May none of us putter through this day without examining our own hearts and starting conversations with our families that lead to the same understanding Dr. King fought for. The understanding that we are one. That racism opposes the gospel. If we harbor prejudice and discrimination in our hearts may we offer it to the Good Lord and ask for a portion of peace. We know our thoughts and emotions will always play out in our present reality. All the more reason to identify and address the sin that so easily entangles.
No matter what color our skin boasts, we are image bearers. Genesis 1:27 tells us,”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The absolute and remarkable image of God is upon all of us. From this, we can conclude there is no basis for discrimination. Yet, our fear, our hate, our isolation, and our pride have led to unthinkable acts over hundreds of years in this country. History tells of its horror.
So, I ask you, on this day, will you celebrate the victory while you embrace the burden? There is much to be done. Dr. King was a pastor, and the movement of which he was a leader started by people who believed in the freedom and love of Christ.
In 1963, the same year Dr. King gave his famous, “I Have A Dream” speech in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. he was thrown into a Birmingham jail for a protest. He wrote a letter to the local newspaper that read, “I’m here because injustice is here.” He went on to explain how Paul went to Tarsus because the people of Tarsus so desperately needed freedom in Christ and that was why he left Atlanta to be in Birmingham.
As followers of Jesus, we claim a gospel of peace. May it drip from every word and belief that manifests in this day and our days to come so every man, woman, and child, regardless of color, may know they are a beloved child of God. May our actions, our words (especially the ones on the internet) reflect our Jesus who loves us ALL. There is room for repentance, forgiveness, grace, and justice.
Perhaps tonight, instead of your usual Monday night programming opt for films such as Selma, Hidden Figures, or the documentary, 13th.
Find ways to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday with your children. We celebrate by making a birthday cake for Dr. King, discuss what he stood for and why, what it means to love people no matter the color of their skin or origin of birth, and offer scenarios and ask our son what he would do. We do this because love is loud, it casts out fear, and it goes first. It sides with the lost, least, and marginalized.
My son Jericho is barely six so we explain, to the best of our ability, the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter movement in a way that will make sense to him. Videos like the one below are great resources to start the conversation.
Since I know this will come up in the comments, please know we have conversations regarding racial tension and racial reconciliation regularly in our household. We reserve them not only for days like today. As an East Indian immigrant, one-half of an interracial marriage, mother of an African immigrant, and mother of a mixed child we are no stranger to discrimination. I’ve got skin in the game and the truth is, so do you. Regardless of the color of your skin.
In closing, I leave you with the final statements of Dr. King’s, “I Have A Dream” speech.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”