Staggering Solidarity Demonstrated for Black History Month 2019

04 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Black History Month

Tags

agreements, Black History Month, brand of freedom, bypassed difficulties, constrained, disagreements, Emancipation Proclamation, hatred, injustice, Land of Opportunity, modus vivendi, not slaves, nothing new, oppressed, partiality, practical compromise, solidarity, stifling, stolen, The Constitution of the United States, The Declaration of Independence

There’s nothing new on this earth.
    Year after year it’s the same old thing.
Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”?
    Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
    And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody’ll remember them either.
    Don’t count on being remembered. – Ecclesiastes 1:9-11, MSG

Nothing New

Stifling Blacks' dreams -
 Land of Opportunity's     
         modus vivendi.                   


       - a haiku by Nadine Drayton-Keen

King Solomon was very wise. There really isn’t anything new in our world today. Not hatred! Not injustice! Not racism! Not sexism! Not ageism! Not religious persecution! Not political biases! Not partiality! Not anything that human beings communicate—especially if what they say or do expresses something negative or anything that is in opposition to God’s intended purposes for humanity.

Solomon’s “nothing new on this earth” truth/wisdom is capsulized in the three lines of my haiku poem that is in the above-illustrated haiku, which I have also inserted into this blog entry. The message my haiku conveys is that not granting the same degree/brand of freedom to American-born Blacks that automatically is given to Whites in America is this nation’s modus vivendi (way of life). Lamentably, the main problem with The Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, and The Constitution of the United States of America is that, in America, the agreements stated in these documents have never been totally accepted by the majority of White Americans as a practical compromise between conflicting parties (Blacks and Whites). For sure, both parties have never truly bypassed their differences so that they both could peacefully exist as equally free.

Perhaps this truth is why something else that isn’t new in this earth—a display of solidarity—has happened on Facebook during the start of this year’s observance of Black History Month. Amazingly, as of 6:47 AM MST, the graphic that is below, which I posted on January 29, 2019, has been shared on Facebook, 6.2K (6, 266) and reacted to 163 times.

Now, while receiving this amount of shares and reactions is definitely nothing new for thousands of other graphics that people have posted on Facebook, this was the first time anything I posted has ever received 100+ reactions, as well as the first time any of my postings has ever received more than 4 or 5 shares. Astonishing blessings, especially since I am a non-celebrity (not a well-known actor, singer, musician, politician, activist, military veteran, published author, educator, mom, grandmother, great-grandmother, televangelist, follower of Christ, and etc.).

Even though I didn’t create the graphic or come up with the message in it (though I did edit the message a little), I am still honored that so many Facebook people with public and private share settings have shared my posting. For me, it is amazing the amounts of shares and reactions (the received like, love, laugh, wow, sad, or angry emojis) my posting has received, to date. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine this happening.

I have no idea how many more shares and reactions this graphic will receive, but if it doesn’t receive any shares beyond the 6.2K (6,266) or isn’t reacted to more than the 163 times that were showing the last time I checked, I won’t complain. I am more than pleased with the number of shares and reactions God has allowed it to receive, to date, because the shares and reactions have demonstrated the kind of solidarity during Black History Month 2019 that I have never seen before now.

As I have said in my posted ‘thank you’ to all my Facebook sisters and brothers who shared “They Didn’t Steal Slaves” graphic that I posted, as well as have said in my other postings related to the above graphic, I am extremely grateful to Father God for favoring one of my postings. I acknowledge that, if He hadn’t allowed it, none of this solidarity or my first-ever large amounts of shares and reactions would ever have happened. To God Be The Glory!

Racists and Bigots’ Agenda

20 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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Tags

agenda, bigotry, bigots, blatant racism, changing landscape, Christlikeness, class bigotry, covert racism, cultural bigotry, curse of Ham, economic racism, fear, Golden Rule, hatred, ignorance. evil, inhumanity, injustice, misogyny, politics, racial divide, racial segregation, racism, racists, religious bigotry, religious racism, sexism, slavery, strange bedfellows

Christlikeness and politics,
Strange bedfellows—
Lukewarm evangelicals
Cohorts with
Siren bewitched
Fervent patriots—
Lured into loving country
Greater than God;
Discipleship deemed
Subordinate to fealty.

Disciple secondary consequence,
Easily discarded—
Dispensed with for
Demagogues carnality
Wringing wet with
Foulest perspiration,
Revolting prejudice,
Stinking with
Profound ignorance
Safeguarded by
Curse of Ham lie
Souls’ immortalized—
Good snubbed for
Evil personified:
Slavery, bigotry,
Inhumanity, fear,
Injustice, hatred,
Misogyny, xenophobia;
Blatant racism,
Covert racism,
Economic racism,
Religious racism,
Class bigotry,
Cultural bigotry,
Religious bigotry,
Racial segregation;
Widening the racial divide.

Patriotism stained Christianity,
Monstrous harvests—
Lynchings, profilings,
Unfair sentences,
Lopsided imprisonments,
Legal silhouettes or
Righteous shootings—
Deracinated infected roots;
Sowed Whiteness
Wherever Blacks,
Browns, Yellows,
Reds varied landscape;
Greenlighted their values,
Deplorable deeds:
Racism promoted,
Bigotry endorsed;
Vile speech approved,
Disabled mocked;
Veterans shamed,
Have-nots insulted;
Violence against
Defenseless condoned;
Animosity preached,
Viciousness incited—
While owning Christ,
Attending churches,
Praying for peace,
Waving American flag,
Declaring America great
Christian nation, again.

~ created November 20, 2016

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.” ~ Matthew 7:12, The Message

If you really keep the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ~ James 2:9, Berean Study Bible

Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ~ 1 John 4:7-8, Berean Study Bible

After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!” ~ Revelation 7:9-10, Berean Study Bible

It’s Taught

02 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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Tags

biases, bigots, children, Colored Only, created equal, early age, formed, hatred, learned, love everyone, love God, name-calling, not equal, prejudices, public shaming, racism, racists, separate, taught, train a child, uncomfortable truth, unlearn biases, Whites Only

So love GOD, your God;
guard well his rules and regulations;
obey his commandments for the rest of time.

…

Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that GOD promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth. ~ Deuteronomy 11:1, 18-21, MSG

Point your kids in the right direction—
when they’re old they won’t be lost. ~ Proverbs 22:6, MSG

Up the
down escalator
they ran;
two children:
Night – Day,
playing tag—
you’re it!

Laughing loud
disturbing nothing,
no one;
loving life,
each other,
the game,
time together,
in public!

Eyes stared,
heads shook,
brows creased
mouths canceled
the joy,
the fun,
good time
rushing up
the down
escalator produced!

Shamefully stunned
by the
name Night
was called,
two children
stopped and
turned toward
each other.

Faces reddened—
one visible
the other
not noticeable.

Worried they
ran to
labeled parts
of store
where their
mothers instructed:
Play here!

~ from My Spirit’s Musing manuscript

Loneliness, Abandonment and Isolation

04 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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abandonment, Armageddon, Dead Sea, Eleanor Rigby, emotional isolation, Father McKenzie, great expectation, hatred, island, loneliness, lottery, mend walls, neighbors, oiler Billie, Pip, Prufrock, rejection, savorless salt, social isolation, stoning, the bell tolls

Never speak sharply to an older man, but plead with him respectfully just as though he were your own father. Talk to the younger men as you would to much-loved brothers. Treat the older women as mothers, and the girls as your sisters, thinking only pure thoughts about them. The church should take loving care of women whose husbands have died if they don’t have anyone else to help them. But if they have children or grandchildren, these are the ones who should take the responsibility, for kindness should begin at home, supporting needy parents. This is something that pleases God very much. The church should care for widows who are poor and alone in the world if they are looking to God for his help and spending much time in prayer; … But anyone who won’t care for his own relatives when they need help, especially those living in his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian. Such a person is worse than the heathen. ~ 1 Timothy 5:1-5, 8; TLB

Prufrock has nothing on me.
I’m measuring out my memory
In a teaspoon—pure misery.

Rigby and her name buried, lonely.
Father McKenzie ostensibly, only
Mourner—conveys my worry.

Orphaned Pip’s unholy deterioration
Compromised his great expectation.
My teaser—loneliness’ frustration.

Lottery winner gets a public stoning.
Tess’ family leading pack, droning
On as she protests—apes my morning.

Oiler Billie’s swim to solid ground
Shows isolation wore him down;
Doomed by ad hoc fatigue—I too drown.

The world is full of evil neighbors
Refusing to mend walls, yet labor
In support of—hatred’s sick savor.

Eventually the bell’s toll will deafen
Everyone; worst toll is Armageddon.
Take heed—let no man become an island.

Loneliness and isolation shouldn’t be
Lifestyles that become another Dead Sea
Full of savorless salt—which defines humanity.

~ January 4, 2016

Family

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

ancestry, blood, bloodline descendants, empty, envy, family, family tree, genealogies, hatred, partiality, pit-vipers, playing the dozens, poisonous, small-minded, snipers, thick and thin, true-blue, venomous

For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other. We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together. ~ 1 John 3:11-15, MSG

Most genealogies aren’t totally traceable
Neither on maternal nor paternal side.
Bloodline descendants’ often detectable
Unappealing trait is fondness to hide
Their desired thick as thieves’ intimacy
Like it’s a Machiavellian conspiracy.

Partiality is the name of their game—
Relatives with the same last name
Play—thinking only they are their family’s
Best representatives of kindred ancestry,
When if truth be told, they are deadly—
Rattle-less yet poisonous pit-vipers;
A very venomous party of snipers
Cruelly but happily playing the dozens,
Equally inflicting unadored cousins,
Siblings or spouses with hatred and envy
Epitomized by small-minded and empty
Tokens of Agápe, Storge, and Philia love;
Sanctimoniousness fitting like a glove.

Thank God a family isn’t always about blood
But often includes people who gladly want you
In their lives and affectionately let you bud
After resolutely making you one of their crew.
These souls will do anything to see you smile;
Freely loving you unreservedly, even while
You struggle, backslide, stumble, or utterly fall
In an uncontrollable descent, where you stall—
Aren’t bouncing back as quickly or successfully,
According to family tree members’ rebound recipe.

God definitely knows what is best for you,
That’s why He provides people willing to fill
The voids from stones blood relations threw
Whose lack of acceptance created the chill
In hearts refusing to be the kind of friend
Who’ll be there for their kin until the end,
Through thick and thin—always true-blue—
The FAMILY who simply loves you for you.

~ January 2, 2016

The Bible’s Lone Voices Suffered

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Spiritual

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

beheaded, chained, crucified, delusion, distress, Divine Exchange, hatred, Humpty-Dumpty, hurt, idolatry, inner circles, moral failure, pain, public fall from grace, racism, ridiculed, sawed in half, servants of God, servants of mankind, stoned, suffering, tortured, whipped

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons.Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. ~ Hebrews 11:35b-38, NLT

Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
‘Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!’ ~ Isaiah 40:3, NLT

He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’ ~ Mark 1:3, NLT

Voices crying in the wilderness usually are lone voices. Although today these lone voices might have hundreds or thousands of supporters and/or followers, for the most part the toughest yet most corrective godly messages the greatest of these lone voices CRY (communicate, convey, reveal…) only are received and applied by a faithful few. Moreover, it is sad to say, but past and present lone voices often suffer some of the most painful and cruelest deaths (whether physical, emotional, financial, and so on), usually at the hands of their countrymen, relatives, friends, and/or religious associates.

There is a biblical pattern, which proves the above statements to be true. While many great voices crying in the wilderness were tortured, ridiculed, whipped, chained, and so forth, the Bible’s greatest crying in the wilderness voices are those belonging to the most righteous and most faithful children of God who (because of the hard to swallow Divine Truths they shared) were, for instance, either sawed in half [Isaiah], or stoned to death [Stephen], or beheaded [John the Baptist], or killed with a sword [James the brother of John], or crucified [Jesus Christ].

Therefore, for the people in today’s churches and ministries to think that because they are serving God and humanity their service is reason enough why they should be guaranteed lives free from sorrow (griefs, hurts, sufferings, troubles, torments, pains, and etc.), and lives abundantly graced (favored) with inner circles overflowing with very close reliable, supportive, and encouraging family members and friends, are merely deluding themselves. They have set themselves up for a Humpty-Dumpty fall.

It is important to note here that Humpty-Dumpty is not just an old nursery rhyme children, for over a couple of centuries, have memorized (the earliest known version of this rhyme was published in 1797). Additionally, a shattered Humpty-Dumpty is an old folk metaphor that has been used to describe the after-effects of moral failure, idolatry, and public fall from grace.

Now one of the often hard truths to swallow today is that many of the people who declare they are servants of God and mankind, sadly, often are just so-called Christ followers who are in friendships with the world. Several of them are living mostly sunny lives filled with wealth, good health, happiness, and ample family members and friends who always are dependable, accommodating and reassuring. Besides that, these wealthy, healthy, and happy – assumed to be servants of God and humanity – primarily are just preaching and teaching feel-good messages, in usually feel-good and seeker-friendly churches or ministries.

What’s more, many of these alleged servants of God and individuals also are teaching and preaching salvation guarantees ALL saved believers that their Lord and Savor received all of the bad and cruel things this world offers so that His saints would be free to receive all of this world’s “good” things. This belief often is called the “Divine Exchange.” The result of this Divine Exchange is that many so-called followers of Christ Jesus not only are believing they exchanged their sins for His perfection, but also they are believing they honor their Lord’s sacrifice the most when they completely are trusting that He will, at all times and in all circumstance, provide them with wealth, health, and happiness.

The purported servants of God who are the foremost promoters of the “come to Jesus and get all of your problems solved” gospel, which includes preaching and teaching on the Divine Exchange belief, often infer that believers are not living God’s promised abundant lives, if their winning souls for Christ Jesus ministries are resulting in those believers being unemployed, impoverished, or in debt; stressed, anguished, or unhappy; emotionally, spiritually, or physically sick; and/or facing unimaginable trials or tribulations. These same supposed servants of God who are major proponents of the “come to Jesus and get all of your problems solved” gospel also proclaim that believers in churches and ministries who are suffering financially (without any or do not have many partners, benefactors, supporters, givers, contributors), or are suffering physically and emotionally, are doing so because they are weak in the faith and/or are unequivocal backsliders.

However, the apostle Paul says that servants of God show that they are true ministers of God in everything that they are doing, when they patiently are enduring “…troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind” and patiently enduring having “…been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food” (2 Corinthians 6:4b-5, NLT). Paul adds:

We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. ~ 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, NLT

The apostle Peter also teaches something totally different than the “come to Jesus and get all of your problems solved” gospel and/or “come to Jesus and be abundantly blessed with church or ministry financial success, good health, and happiness. Peter writes:

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?And also,

‘If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?’

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you. ~ 1 Peter 4:12-19, NLT

For today’s believers who are in the Lord’s ministry, the bottom line is this: If everybody loves you, then somebody is lying to you. If everybody likes you, then you are not preaching and teaching the unadulterated Gospel of Christ. Furthermore, if nobody is talking about you, then you are not doing anything worthy for anybody to talk about, neither in a positive nor in a negative way. You definitely aren’t living a holy and righteous lifestyle, like Christ Jesus lived. Lastly, if you never are sad or grieving, then you aren’t living at all!

To believe otherwise just means, as previously mentioned, you have set yourself up for a Humpty-Dumpty fall. Thus, when your morality fails you, or when your idol status is revoked and no one worships you anymore, or when you actually fall from grace and shatter into millions of pieces—too many for your reliable, supportive, and encouraging family members and friends to put you back together—perhaps then you will believe and trust in what the Word of God says about suffering, which mainly is that the suffering of trials not only proves your character and integrity but also tests the object and quality of your faith (cf. James 1:2-4).

Finally, maybe a Humpty-Dumpty fall is what it had to take before many of us would understand that God uses all kinds of sufferings as His tools to get our attention, so He can influence us (via His Word and His Holy Spirit) to fulfill His purposes for our lives—godly purposes which might never include financial success, good health, happiness, as the world knows them, nor a life surrounded by countless supporters and encouragers who are family members and friends. Instead, maybe His chief purpose for our lives all along has been for us to join the impressive list of holy, righteous, and powerful lone voices, of which none were very wealthy (neither with money and material possessions nor with large numbers of supportive and encouraging family members and friends), not all of them were 100% healthy, and very few were happy (according to how the world defines happiness)!

Selah (pause and calmly think about that). Amen.

How Beautiful Is Your Soul?

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Spiritual

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Christ Jesus' disciples, condescension, disapproval, disgust, envy, Food For Thought, godly love, hatred, Household of Faith siblings, jealousy, partiality/favoritism, resentment, Saint Augustine

I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other. ~ John 13:34-35, CJB

When I think about Saint Augustine’s words, my eyes fill up with tears and my spirit (heart) becomes deeply grieved, because I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that there are so many professed believers in Christ Jesus who deliberately show partiality/favoritism, condescension, disapproval, disgust, rejection/slap in the face, resentment, jealousy, disrespect, envy, and hatred, etc., toward other Body of Christ believers. That truth just boggles my mind!

Food For Thought:

How many people on your email lists have you taken the time to share the love of God with on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis? When is the last time you showed every child of God (that you know) just how much you love him or her?

If God has commanded you to love each other as He loves you so that the world (everybody) would be able to see that you truly are the Lord’s disciples, then why hasn’t the world (everybody) been able to see you showing godly love to everyone, especially to every Household of Faith sibling? More important, why hasn’t every brother and sister in Christ Jesus received that SAME love that God commands you to show to every person who is a disciple of Christ Jesus, and why hasn’t every brother and sister in Christ Jesus received the SAME love God commands you to show to every person who is His (or your) enemy?

If or when you really think about the above questions, with the aid of the Holy Spirit I am sure that you will come to the same conclusions I have come to, which first off is that most of us who have received God’s love have failed to love every believer in Christ Jesus like He loves us! Secondly, I also have concluded that the reason why the world (everybody) has not seen the beauty of most of our souls is because the love of God (godly love) either is reserved only for those people we love as our spouses or as “privileged” family members and “privileged” close friends, or else the love of God (godly love) really just isn’t in us at all!

Even the apostle John agrees with this last reason, for he writes:

If anyone boasts, ‘I love God,’ and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. 1 John 4:20-21, MSG

Bottom line is that some of our souls just aren’t that beautiful, and that is not just because some people have made it clear, by their lack of involvement in our lives, that they don’t think our souls are beautiful, but more because most of us don’t show love to everyone! Last time I checked, LOVE was an action word, which means we don’t just tell people that we love them; we demonstrate to people just how much we love them!

Besides the Word of God and the leadings, promptings, and teachings of the Holy Spirit on the issue of demonstrating godly love to everybody, there also is one particular Contemporary Christian Rock song that forced me to re-examine my failure in showing the God kind of love to everyone, and this song also moved me to make an immediate radical change. This song is Casting Crowns’ “If We Are The Body.” I have loved this song from the first moment I heard it back in the spring of 2006, in spite of the fact that this song made me look inwardly at myself and see my shortcomings where godly love demonstrations are concerned.

“If We Are The Body” actually was first released in 2003, but since I didn’t listen to Contemporary Christian Rock music that much back then, I never heard this song until several years after its release. However, I am so glad that I was led to listen to a Contemporary Christian Music radio station in the spring of 2006, because every time I have listened to this song, from that time forward, I have been profoundly moved. Please check out the below YouTube video presentation of “If We Are The Body.”

If you’ve never heard Casting Crowns’ song before today, or if you have heard it but the lyrics just haven’t resonated that much in your spirit and soul, then listen to the song again, and again, and again, for as many times as it might take for you to understand the message of the song. The message of Casting Crowns’ song is that every person who calls him or herself a Christian is supposed to be demonstrating God’s kind of love to every human being, and especially to his or her brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. No Exceptions! No Acceptable Excuses!

Is God’s love saturating your whole body, spirit, and soul? Is God’s love in you causing you to show the whole world the beauty of your soul? Is God’s love in you demonstrating to the entire world that you are indeed Christ Jesus’ disciple? Shalom!

Our God Has an Affinity for Color

17 Saturday Jan 2009

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Faith and Wisdom

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affinity, Architect, bejeweled, color, Creator, discrimination, gemstones, Godhead, hatred, Hewbrew lineage, hues, mistreatment, multicolored, shades, skin colors

Instantly I was in the Spirit, and there before me in heaven stood a throne, and on the throne Someone was sitting. The One sitting there gleamed like diamonds and rubies, and a rainbow shining like emerald encircled the throne. ~ Revelation 4:2-3, CJB

The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass… The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass. ~ Revelation 21:18, 21, CJB

The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst. ~ Revelation 21:19-20, CJB

Globally, the color of someone’s skin has been a persistent and divisive cultural issue for centuries. For example, the fact that someone in 2008 would phrase a Helium.com discussion title as “The Bible’s perceptions of colored people” in a sub-sub channel of “Religion and Spirituality” proves my opening point. Furthermore, some people still don’t have a clue about how insensitive it is to refer to people of color as “colored people.” Nevertheless, the discussion’s title is here, so let’s deal with it.

First, the Bible isn’t perceptive. God is perceptive and so are His human creations. Secondly, it is apparent that God perceived that many of His human creations would discriminate against other humans, for sundry reasons, but mostly because of the color of their skin. After all, God chooses for His only begotten Son to come through the Hebrew lineage of King David, and David’s lineage begins with Noah’s son Shem, from which comes the word Semite. God places these Semites in the Middle East, gives them a language that is in the Afro-Asiatic family (e.g., Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew), and gives them a broad range of skin colors. As a result, mankind has the notorious honor to be able to record in countless history books the many anti-Semitic atrocities committed against Israel’s Jewish people all because of, for example, Hitler’s racist Nazism propaganda and his “Aryan laws.”

Now, what also is so ironic about God choosing people of color to be the lineage through which Jesus the Christ would come is that God knew that most humans would fail to see how precious color is to Him. For sure, God has an affinity for color, because in Him is every color. John the Revelator proves this point when he describes God sitting on His heavenly throne. God is vividly described as having a bejeweled countenance made up of these colorful gemstones: Jasper, which is a “spotted” high-gloss quartz stone that resembles a diamond, and comes in shades of red, yellow, green, grayish blue, brown, and combinations of these; Sardine (Sardius), which is a translucent, light to dark brown gemstone; and Emerald, which is shaped like a rainbow having a solid bright green brilliance (cf. Revelation 4:2-3).

Furthermore, to reiterate the importance of these colors in God, John the Revelator is instructed to lists these same three semiprecious gemstones (Jasper, Emerald and Sardine [Sardius]) as God’s decorative touches for the first, fourth, and sixth foundations of the Holy City’s wall. Indeed, the wall of the Holy City has twelve foundations, each inlaid with twelve different colored precious jewels (cf. Revelation 21:19-20). Then there is the transparent, pure gold color of the Holy City, and the Holy City’s transparent, pure gold street. The richness of the colors in God is also depicted in the Holy City’s twelve gates, each of which is made from a single pearl (cf. Revelation 21:18, 21).

Thus, by using a variety of colors to adorn Himself and to decorate Heaven, God is showing His true nature, which is glorious, luminous, dazzling, vibrant, and multicolored. By also giving mankind hues and shades that are colors in Him, our Father-Creator-Architect God is showing how He has achieved unity in diversity. God, therefore, is confirming that EVERY man and EVERY woman is magnificently and wondrously created not only to reflect God’s own radiant Light but also to depict His multicolored, bejeweled image.

That is why it is a shame that mankind, as a whole, still doesn’t see color the same way that the Godhead sees it. As an African-American woman who was born and raised in America, and has had the opportunity to travel to many parts of this world, it pains me to say this sad truth: too many of the men and women, boys and girls, living in every nation throughout this world today still continue to voice their objections pertaining to people who look different than they do, and mostly their disapprovals, or hostilities, or oppositions are because of the color of someone’s skin. Sadder still, even Christians worldwide discriminate against other Christians, and they do so mostly because of the color of someone’s skin. Ironically, this last truth is best demonstrated during Sunday morning worship time. For example, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM continues to be the most segregated time of the week, especially in America, because the majority of American believers, who happen to be Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and so forth, in most local “churches” are worshipping God with their “own” kind, during said hours!

Lastly, because of people’s prejudices that are rooted in wrong thinking, myths and fairy tales, an inestimable number of people who discriminate against others, whether because of skin color, or for some other insane reasons, will miss out on experiencing true unity in diversity on this Earth. Even more important is the fact that these prejudiced people will miss out on experiencing the real richness of God’s multicolored nature (His spiritual covering) that adorns and fills every one of His Spirit reborn and adopted sons and daughters.

~ Submitted on June 16, 2008 to Helium.com

Revised and posted here on January 17, 2009; edited December 7, 2014.