The book not only tells the tales of great saints, both familiar and not-so-familiar, but also of some great heroes. Today we heard the story of a quiet hero, Rosa Parks.
What I love about this story is that it doesn't make Rosa out to be a passive hero, too lazy and tired to move to the back of the bus, a hero by happenstance and not by design. Neither is she an unsuspecting, unknowledgeable bystander-- this Rosa Parks, though forced to drop out of school to care for a sick mother-- was well-read, studying Ghandi and discussing with her church group how to effect change in a society that regarded her and all her people as second-class citizens. It acknowledges that Rosa and her friends spent hours planning how to make things more fair. Rosa wasn't a reluctant hero, but a purposeful one, volunteering to be the first to strike a blow for civil rights.
Another fascinating fact is that Rosa Parks had a baby just two weeks before she was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus. I can't imagine how bonewrearingly exhausted she must have been, how worried she must have been for her infant child at home, yet how convinced and sure-footed she was in knowing that her cause was just and right. Katie Grace wanted to know who nursed the baby while Rosa was in prison. It was an opportunity to explain the sad fact that some women cannot nurse their babies not because they don't want to, but because economic realities force them back to work at jobs that don't make accomodations for little babies.
In this time when we learn about the winter saints, it seems very fitted to acknowledge this brave woman who said "Do what you have to do. I am not moving."
Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24) ~*~*~ Seek good and not evil, that you may live. (Amos 5:14) ~*~*~ For the needy will not always be forgotten, Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever. (Psalm 9:18)
0 comments:
Post a Comment