Living, Breathing People Whom God Created in His Image
On Friday night, Ray and I sat mesmerized as we watched Walk Together Children: The 150th Anniversary of the Fisk Jubilee Singers® on PBS. It was beautiful. The historic references added since we watched the documentary/concert last spring were well done and positive.
I again relished the portion of the show when modern Fisk Jubilee Singers made the famous photograph of the original Singers (that I shared with you last Thursday) come to life.
Watching Minnie Tate, Greene Evans, Isaac Dickerson, Jennie Jackson, Maggie Porter, Ella Sheppard, Thomas Rutling, Benjamin Holmes, and Eliza Walker step forward to tell his or her story was powerful. Like the individuals pictured above, each person in every historic photograph was at one time a living, breathing person whom God created in His image.
One of the original singers was born in Nashville to a free black woman. One of the Singers had 22 siblings. One was only 13 years old when she traveled with the group. One had been apprenticed to a tailor when he was so young he couldn’t see the fabric on the tailor’s table; he first learned to read by observing words he saw while delivering the tailor’s wares. One had studied music before attending Fisk and was able to help the Singers’ first director arrange their music. Traveling with the singers to raise money for the school prevented one member of the group from being able to complete his education at what was then Fisk School and is now Fisk University.
Our children need our help to see each person in history and each person alive today as a living, breathing person whom God created in His image. When we see each person that way, it is much easier to get along with one another and to be understanding of each others’ humanity.
“For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only Son,
so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish,
but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
