Recently I’ve heard more people than usual say, “I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.” Let’s not get things confused, so don’t think you should stop there. Beware of how this country was brutally taken from Indigenous Peoples. It’s OK to say, “I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving,” but don’t be confused about our need to give thanks to God for something every day. We can’t forget the past any of us have witnessed, but we can be the ones willing to pray and ask God to help us make the changes we need for a better world for all of us today.
Amid all the ungodly things going on around us today, let us remember that God has got the whole world in His hands. No matter which side you are on in the Israeli/Hamas War, don’t be confused. Two wrongs don’t make one right. All the hate-filled rhetoric is not helping to resolve the matter. Let us be on the right side by remembering God can fix this.
According to a song we are reminded, “He’s got the whole world in his hands/He’s got the whole wide world in his hands/He’s got the whole world in his hands/He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands/He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands/He’s got the whole world in his hands/He’s got the little bitty baby in his hands/He’s got the little bitty baby in his hands/He’s got the whole world in his hands/He’s got you and me sister (and brother) in his hands/He’s got you and me sister (and brother) in his hands/He’s got you and me sister (and brother) in his hands/He’s got the whole world in his hands/He’s got everybody in his hands/He’s got everybody in his hands/He’s got everybody in his hands/He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
If you are an African American, it’s likely your parents and grandparents sang this song many days and nights. They knew and they believed everything would be alright. It is an African American spiritual that brought our ancestors through some difficult days and nights. When you get discouraged it’s good to fall back to “the olden days” for the strength to carry on. While we’ve witnessed the horrors and the meanness of the “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” theory, but after all the devastation of man’s inhumanity to man, we have begun to see what to many may be the end of the tunnel for some, as some of the hostages who spent 49 days in captivity and some of the young people who were imprisoned come out alive. There’s a lot of work ahead of them to be done, and we must pledge to do our part in what we can do to prevent their harboring hate as they heal.
Let us pray that the negotiations for others will go well. With a combined total of nearly 20,000 people dead between Israel and Hamas, let us pray that both sides will see there are no winners in their war against humanity on either side. Neither the civilian Israelis nor the civilian Palestinians deserved what has happened to them. As God’s people, we know that our criticism on both sides is justified. There are no clean hands in this tragedy. We can’t bring back those who paid the ultimate price, but we can resolve to treat each other better as we move forward. We can refuse to be a part of the hate we are hearing spewed throughout this crisis and try to be that calming voice and that blessed donor who shares what we have with those in need.
Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).
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