COME CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY AND EDUCATION MONTH WITH ME. Part 1. WHAT A STORY INDEED!

Dear family, friends, and colleagues. February is known as BLACK HISTORY AND EDUCATION MONTH. While some will not take a moment this month to thank God for persons of color who made a difference in their country and the world. We at GARDEN MINISTRY will dedicate our devotionals this month to the memory of these great trailblazers.

While the newly formed Trump administration has ramped up arrests of undocumented migrants in major cities around the US, and detaining thousands of people. Let us never forget how America became America today. 

It was through immigration leaving the European countries to come to America. They, fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. 

Until the 19h century, power and hunger were common in Europe. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread. Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted. Today, I am so glad that the Native Indians of America did not kick the immigrants out of their country when they arrived. Through the spirit of sharing and seeking to help one another, they helped them. 

"If Indians were the only native people in America, why do most Americans feel it's ok or support keeping immigrants out? When it seems that unless you're Native American you or your ancestors were also immigrants.

On December 15th, the 224th anniversary of the Bill of Rights ratification, President Obama attended a Naturalization Ceremony held within National Archives. During which he gave a brief speech on America’s history as a nation born of immigrants.

I believe this passage addresses your question rather well.

“We celebrate this history, this heritage, as an immigrant nation. And we are strong enough to acknowledge, as painful as it may be, that we haven’t always lived up to our own ideals. We haven’t always lived up to these documents. From the start, Africans were brought here in chains against their will, and then toiled under the whip. They also built America. A century ago, New York City shops displayed those signs, “No Irish Need Apply.” Catholics were targeted, their loyalty questioned -- so much so that as recently as the 1950s and ‘60s, when JFK had to run, he had to convince people that his allegiance wasn’t primarily to the Pope.

Chinese immigrants faced persecution and vicious stereotypes, and were, for a time, even banned from entering America. During World War II, German and Italian residents were detained, and in one of the darkest chapters in our history, Japanese immigrants and even Japanese American citizens were forced from their homes and imprisoned in camps. We succumbed to fear. We betrayed not only our fellow Americans, but our deepest values. We betrayed these documents. It’s happened before. And the biggest irony of course was -- is that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigrants. How quickly we forget. One generation passes, two generation passes, and suddenly we don’t remember where we came from. And we suggest that somehow there is “us” and there is “them,” not remembering we used to be “them.”

We are, as the former President observes, not always better than our history. We forget, we grow fearful, we draw back and shake our hands in anger. Time and time again, we give way to demagoguery and fear mongering, create a gulf between ourselves and that which would be us.

After all, we are only humans.

But day by day, year by year, decade by decade, we can grow. Slowly, unevenly and with plenty of setbacks, but we have proven it time and time again. Fear will not prevail forever and that which we gain by embracing hope in its stead will shine through.

“Tonight is a particular honor for me because - let's face it - my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.

While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton's army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through FHA, and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.

They are both passed away now. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride.

I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents' dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.”

Today we celebrate Alberto Gonzales. Alberto Gonzales became the first Hispanic U.S. Attorney General. Gonzales was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Houston. Gonzales was born on August 4, 1955 and became a American lawyer, judge, and was appointed Attorney General of the United States (2005–07), the first Hispanic to occupy the post.

Gonzales, is the son of Mexican migrant workers who spoke little English. After graduating from high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force (1973) and then studied at the U.S. Air Force Academy (1975–77). He received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1979 from Rice University and then attended Harvard University, where he earned a law degree in 1982. That year he joined a private law firm in Houston, where he practiced business law for 13 years.

It is time to heal racial prejudice if we are going to make heaven our home.

"Walls of separation have been built up between the whites and the blacks. These walls of prejudice will tumble down of themselves, as did the walls of Jericho, when Christians obey the Word of God, which enjoins on them supreme love to their Maker and impartial love to their neighbors. . . Let every church whose members claim to believe the truth for this time, look at this neglected, downtrodden race, that as a result of slavery have been deprived of the privilege of thinking and acting for themselves."

If we are going to make it in this world, restitution is needed.

"The law of God contained in the Ten Commandments reveals to man his duty to love God supremely and his neighbor as himself. The American nation owes a debt of love to the colored race, and God has ordained that they should make restitution for the wrong they have done them in the past. Those who have taken no active part in enforcing slavery upon the colored people are not relieved from the responsibility of making special efforts to remove, as far as possible, the sure result of their enslavement." (The Southern Work, 54)

The Greatest Commandment

Deuteronomy 6:1–19; Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28–34.  

34 And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. 35. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: 36. “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”

37Jesus declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38. This is the first and greatest commandment. 39. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Finally, let us all learn a lesson from the quotation of the late Bob Marley, "You will never find justice in a world where CRIMINALS make the law." May we learn how to love one another, even as God loves us. Have a wonderful day. Blessings, Blessings, Blessings 

By GARDEN MINISTRY