The United States recently observed two national holidays. One of them, Juneteenth, was recognized as a federal holiday for the very first time this year; the other we have celebrated for 244 years with much fanfare and fireworks. Both holidays commemorate “freedom.”
I didn’t really know a lot about Juneteenth. So I decided to fire up Google and learn something about it each day starting on the new federal holiday on June 19, through the 4th of July. Of course, that meant reading blogs and articles and watching videos about slavery as it existed for hundreds of years in our country.
In my online research, one click led to another which led to another and another. So many stories and illustrations—many almost too terrible to comprehend. How did anyone become the type of person who can rip human beings from their homes, their families, their freedom-–and sell them like cattle? How did anyone turn into someone who would buy a person and do such unspeakable things to them?
Juneteenth remembers how the Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln issued on January 1, 1863, declared all enslaved people in the rebellious states “thenceforward, and forever free.” But somebody must have forgotten to tell Texas, so on June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston to ensure slaves would be freed—two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
But while we celebrate Juneteenth as the "end" of slavery, “Black codes” and Jim Crow laws continued to enslave African Americans. Signs proclaiming “for whites only” continued to deny rights, dignity, humanity. And even as those things largely have disappeared from today’s America, we still have a long way to go to ensure equality and liberty and justice for all.
Jesus is asking us, "Do you want to get well?"
This year what I learned during those 16 days impacted my July 4th celebration. In place of my usual “ooos and ahhs” over the fireworks shooting toward heaven, I lifted prayers up for God to keep working on us and through us, so that someday all people truly will be “thenceforward, and forever free.” I prayed for us to get better—and to BE better. I prayed for the United States of America to want to get well, pick up our mats and walk together with Jesus to make freedom for all God's people something we can celebrate not just on June 19 and July 4, but every day of the year.
"want" - Google News
July 12, 2021 at 08:51PM
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“Do you want to get well?” - Leawood - Church of the Resurrection
"want" - Google News
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