#ColorBlind

Yesterday, I received a  big bouquet of Tulips from one of my sons for Mother's Day. There were so many colors and variations of colors and they were beautiful. That is how it is with the human race - so many colors and shades of colors and all are beautiful.

The door bell rang at our home in Memphis one hot summer day when I was about eight or nine and I answered it. There was this black lady standing on on our porch with three or four little children gathered around her and out by the curb was a cart filled with vegetables. She asked me if my mother was at home and I replied, "Yes, mam, I'll get her for you."  I walked back into the kitchen where my mother was doing some cleaning and before I could get the words out of my mouth, my mother began to chide me. She had heard the conversation between me and the lady and was concerned that I had broken some rule of etiquette in the south in the 40's. I had said 'mam' to the black lady and that was considered a big no-no. I was never to do that again.

In my young eyes at the time, the lady standing on our front porch was my elder, no matter what her color was and I had been taught to respect my elders by saying mam and sir. She was a human being and her skin was a bit darker than mine, but if a rule is a rule, it should apply to every situation and my logic told me that she deserved to be treated with respect. I didn't dwell on what had just happened in my house very much at the time, but that day was a marked day in my memory.

Even growing up in the south in the 40's when buses had white lines painted on the floor of every one to mark the place where Negros were not allowed to go beyond and at public places there were always two sets of restrooms, distinctly marked, 'White' and 'Colored" and schools designated for each race and theaters and water fountains and on and on, somehow, I always saw people, human-beings with variations of color and each one deserving respect. We were all created in the image of God with our varying colors or even with freckles.

Romans 13:7 tells us to "give respect to whom respect is due and honor to whom honor is due" and that rule should apply in every situation is if is a rule.  May we always have the eyes of a child and see people as human-beings created in God's image.