There’s just something about spring that always evokes joyful feelings of hope and childlike anticipation of what lies just around the corner. Winter seasons of cold barrenness can feel endless and sometimes wondering if there really can be “life” again. And then, every year, here comes spring, reminding us that indeed God has been busy working, just out of our sight. And all those seeds, all the hopes and dreams begin to burst forth in new life again.
On this Valentine’s Day evening, when the world is celebrating Love, I couldn’t shake the pain I saw deep in the eyes of the homeless as I was out running errands today. They are someone’s daughter or son, sister or brother, mother or father, someone’s friend…. they had someone somewhere. The cars whisk by and no one seems to care. I have met many people who stand in judgment, and condemn them for being where they’re at.
But the wealthy? They’re just as easy to identify. They are the ones with people fawning over them, their spouses, their children, what they wear and most anything they do or don’t do is applauded.
In both of these situations, it isn’t the poverty, and it isn’t the wealth that made them stand out, but rather the people that were around them - shunning or fawning.
Thinking about Black history month and the amazing black women that have been and continue to impact my life in such wonderful ways! Women in ministry, women in the arts, poets, authors and First Ladies. Do you know Madam CJ Walker? How about George Floyd?