Our Story is Not Just About Us
I am thinking of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights struggle that continues to this day.
This week the Torah reminds me that the redemption from slavery began when God takes note of the Israelites’ suffering. 400 years of slavery comes to an end when the pain is finally noticed.
“God heard their moaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” (Exodus 2)
Maya Angelou, the great contemporary American poet, stirs my heart with the words:
“God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”
When will we follow God’s example? When will we begin to take notice?
We too can say:
This week the Torah reminds me that the redemption from slavery began when God takes note of the Israelites’ suffering. 400 years of slavery comes to an end when the pain is finally noticed.
“God heard their moaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” (Exodus 2)
Maya Angelou, the great contemporary American poet, stirs my heart with the words:
Out of the huts of history’s shameI return to the Torah. It reminds and cajoles. Perhaps all it takes is for us to take note of the suffering and pain.
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
“God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”
When will we follow God’s example? When will we begin to take notice?
We too can say:
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
Take note. Rise up.
Our march from slavery to freedom is not just about us.
Our march from slavery to freedom is not just about us.