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This is a blog post about the power of love, forgiveness and reconciliation in a troubled world.
It is not a political statement.
I grew up in the Deep South in a time when racial discrimination was all around me. I was blessed to be raised by two parents who treated everyone equally. They saw everyone simply as a child of God. We were all related.
Integration of schools, churches and other places came late to the small town where I grew up. But it finally arrived. Many of the old guard were not happy.
There was no internet then. But wagging tongues and local newspaper editorials made up for it. Stinging, venomous comments filled the limited airways.
I remember a friend and my father sipping ice tea sitting on the back porch. She was black. He was white. They were discussing the recent uproar in town.
My father said, “Well, Miss Helen, what are we going to do?”
Helen’s answer still resonates with me all these years later. She said matter of factly, “Mr. Horace, we are going to do what we have always done. We are going to stay right here and keep loving one another.”
Sounds like something Jesus would say. In fact, He did say it,
“Love one another.”
John 13:34
And so they did. We did.
The troubled world kept spinning and changing through many labor pains. We saw the hate. But we chose to stand firm in our little part of the world and keep loving one another.
I did not personally experience discrimination until I lived in Germany in the early 70s. Some people pointed at me, made obscene gestures and yelled out “stupid American woman.”
I was truly baffled by it. I had done nothing to them. They did not know me. But they judged me by the group with whom I was associated. They hated me because I was American and I was a military wife.
A German friend and coworker later tried to explain it to me. She said, “You have to understand. The Americans killed their grandparents and they grew up learning to hate Americans.”
“But, “ I protested, “The war ended a long time ago. I had nothing to do with killing anyone.”
She said simply, “They were raised to hate.”
Interestingly, my German friend and I were not the only ones in this conversation.
My German friend was an older woman.
Her name was Mrs. Mutafalo. My other friend and coworker was a younger woman from England. Her name was Molly.
Both had survived the war, but from decidedly different perspectives.
My older German friend had once believed Hitler would create a new, better Germany. She had been part of the many who put their hope for a brighter future with him.
My younger English friend was Jewish. She had lived in London when she was a little girl.
Her mother had dyed her brown hair blond to try to disguise the fact she was Jewish. Molly had continued to dye her hair, especially when she discovered her American GI husband was being transferred to Germany.
Molly told us of the terror of hiding under the streets as bombs dropped on London. Even though years had passed, the memories were traumatizing to her. She shook and cried as she recounted the events of that time.
She then turned to Mrs. Mutafalo and said, “I know you did not do this, but how could you have let it happen? Why did you people let Hitler in?”
Mrs. Mutafalo also cried, “We did not know what he would do. We just knew he promised to make things better for Germany. He said he would. We believed him.”
Molly persisted. “But what about the rest of us?”
Mrs. Mutafalo hugged Molly. She said, “I am so sorry. We simply did not know.”
Molly received her hug. They stood as two people, not completely restored, but somehow understanding that even the tiniest bit of Love could ease the sting of great evil.
Forgiveness on whatever level could open a door and let light come into dark places.
All three of us from radically different backgrounds became great friends.
As in the world of my southern childhood, the troubled world kept spinning and changing through many labor pains. We saw the hate. But we chose to stand firm in our little part of the world and keep loving one another.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:7
