On the mission trip, the all-white team taught Vacation Bible School to the children. The Mississippi band of Choctaw were those who had hidden from the forced evictions and genocide in 1832 which came to be known as the Trail of Tears. I, personally, was deeply uncomfortable teaching that God works in all circumstances (for that was one night's discussion) to children whose people knew that kind of history. Until I got there. Most of the children welcomed us, and most of the adults tolerated us.
I say most. There were those children who threw tree bark and spouted racist comments, but most were alright.
It really hit home that before we are Choctaw, white, or anything else, we are imago dei (made in the image of God), and I had forgotten that at Wesley, to my shame and sorrow. Sometimes in theological education, you're so busy looking at the trees you forget that God created the whole damn forest.
It seems that you remembered what's most important. Thanks for sharing the good insight that you learned. The idea that we are God's children is sometimes forgotten internally. I often wonder how much better the world would be if we remembered in who's image we are created.
ReplyDelete