One

This isn't the first post I have made on the cause of race relations.  But while in the shower, some words came to me in a song.  When the discussions about the relationships between Native Americans and whites come up, it is almost hardly in a positive fashion.  Often, the pain of the abuse rips open old wounds, and forgiveness needs to be applied again.  In the process of my own healing - which sounds odd, since I am white - I have had to learn to not adopt the shame of my great-great-great-great grandfather's generation.  I did not commit the sin.  However, what comes of all this skeleton in the closet?  Do we become friends, but refrain from speaking on the past?  Obviously we must learn from it!  

But how can we see God at work in all the pain?  That was the crux of the song in the shower:  "I can call you my brother, but I know that this would not be, if our fathers had never met."  This doesn't excuse the behavior and the laws that forced so many people from their lands and families, but is it possible that God knew that what the inter-racial relationship of the 1800s would not have to persist?  That He knew His kingdom would come, and people would realize that His family was multi-cultural?  Perhaps, it is not enough of an answer.  But I hope that it can bring healing.

One

Together as one?

We can't ever

Seem to forget.

The pain lingers,

Lines drawn

By the colors of skin.

One perpetually apologizing

For the sins of the past.

Another haunted by the trauma

Pressed upon the psyche

So many generations ago.

I wish it didn't happen

Like it did.

I wish it wasn't

As it were.

I wish I could've changed

It.

And yet, I am thankful

To call you friend.

I am grateful

To name you as brother, a sister.

But I know it would not be

If our fathers never met.

Might it be possible

That the hell they went through

The battles they fought

Was all worth it

If it meant you and me

United as one?

Our fathers saw each other

As enemies.

They stared at one another

Filled with hostilities.

Let go of the hate...

What they believed to be impossible,

God made it 

A reality.

We're together as one.