Gracious and trusting God, the poet Maya Angelou tells us a brave and startling truth about ourselves as humans: that we have the ability to create peace and freedom for all. “A Brave and Startling Truth” by Maya Angelou:
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space…
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body…
Have the power to fashion for this Earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when.—AMEN.