In a vision I saw sweet justice all across the land:
No droughts, no floods, no hunger or violent hands,
A gift to the people -- they beheld a great light!
The promise of a morning star that split the night.
What can it mean ... this dazzling mystery?
This thing that rushes forward from a dark history?
In the land of Eden at the edge of an abyss ...
Sweet justice for God’s weary people and righteousness.
Sculptors of Rome when they fashioned the man Mark
Gave him long flowing curls, white skin and not dark;
They disregarded the gospel writer’s heritage,
His place of birth and training, his special lineage.
The first gospel writer and Peter’s attendant ...
Hailing from Cyrene, there most his days were spent,
On the northern coast of the continent Africa,
In a cruel land that today men call Libya.
When the man called Jesus mournfully walked the earth,
The blessed product of the first virgin birth,
As prophets foretold, a tender shoot from dry ground,
The firstborn spirit raised where Adam’s dust was found;
A descendent of Enoch, of Noah, Ham and Shem --
Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him;
A man of sorrows, from whom they hid their faces,
All the arrogant white, the masters of races.
Where is the clue, the key that unlocks this mystery?
What might be the fulfillment that will explode in history?
We need only consider the color of skin of the man Mark,
That he was an African, a Cyrenian with skin pure and dark,
Who recognized the man called Simon of Cyrene,
Grabbed by Roman soldiers to make their cruelty more obscene;
One to carry the cross ... one like the Savior who fell
An African, bringing justice and peace, God’s redeemer Immanuel!
Throughout history, the African has been mocked,
Like the Jew and the Arab in a bitter struggle locked;
God in his mercy has heard the people and their cries
He means to raise them up and dry their weary eyes.
In one man the lingering woes of Ishmael,
Whose handmaiden mother was shown a living well,
United at last with his brother Isaac,
Like Jacob and Esau, God will bring these brothers back!
In one man is found every hope, every promise and dream,
Every blow, every slap, every rape and every tortured scream,
Whose coming unites all the good of every nation,
From the beginning to the end, the cycle closed of creation.
But can it be, is it too wondrous to be true?
That at long last, the burdens of God’s people will be through?
The faithful should pray and solemnly ponder this ...
As they quake with fear, the foes of sweet justice and true righteousness!
Peace and blessings to the people of Africa
Randall Carter Gray
1113 Woodbine Way
Signal Mountain, TN 37377
(423) 886-5071
randallgray@mac.com
http://www.tanata.squarespace.com
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The writer is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
