IN CHRIST THERE IS NO SKIN COLOR

I've been accused of being a racist, and being upset because a Black American was elected president. Well, I've never considered myself a racist, and have grown up and worked with black people all of my life.

Some of my most precious early memories are of a black man called "Smokey" who worked with my father on the farm. Back in "those days", you didn't just hope in the car and scoot over to pick up day labor. Dad would go over on Sunday night and pick Smokey up and bring him to the farm. He had a room of his own in a building behind the farmhouse, and spent most of his free time in his room...reading his Bible and praying, and doing beautiful hand carvings. He ate his meals with our family, but soon excused himself to go "home". Quite frequently, my absence from the house would be missed....Mom said she didn't have to wonder at all where I was. When she started looking, the first place she checked was Smokey's and there I'd be sitting on the bed listening to Smokey talk about his past, and sometimes reading from the Bible aloud to me!

Sometimes when Dad would go to pick Smokey up on Sunday night, he'd take the entire family with him, and we'd attend Smokey's Sunday night church service with him...the only white people in the congregation. I never once sensed any difference from them...other than the color of their skin. They loved Jesus, were good parents, and wonderful neighbors. It was only when we visited my Dad's sister "in town" that I noticed there was a difference in the attitude of black people toward us....and to this day, I don't think the difference was because of race or color, but because they did not know the God that our black friends in the country knew!

When I became pregnant with my daughter (and only child), I was working as an Administrative Assistant at North Carolina State College (it had not yet been given the title of "University"). My husband had graduated from N.C.State 3 years earlier in 1961. All the time he was a student, I was working full-time and typing manuscripts and theses to supplement his summer earnings to pay living and school expenses. I was blessed to be able to afford someone to come one day a week, clean and do laundry for me. This precious woman was black and became a second mother to me, and when my daughter was born, she came to work fulltime to keep house and take care of my child. I loved her dearly, but soon realized I wanted to be a full-time "Mom" so I resigned from my work and stayed home (a decision I have never regretted).

The woman's name was Lara, and she was working for us during the civil rights riots in 1960. I can remember going home (to a 3-room apartment) for lunch, and watching WRAL-5 noon news. When all the coverage of the riots came on, Lara would say, "Miss Melvin, if those NEGROES don't shut their mouths, they're going to get all the rest of us black folks in trouble."
I rejoiced when the barriers between "black and white" began to fall. I wept when Martin Luther King was killed, just as I wept when John F. Kennedy was shot. They were both God's children and my brothers in Christ.

There have always been "troublemakers"....both white and black....and I'm afraid there always will be in this life. The trouble, however, has not been with the majority of the blacks and whites. The problem has been created by a handful of whites who ARE prejudiced toward the blacks and a handful of blacks, who are out to prove that they are not EQUAL to whites but SUPERIOR.

The pages of history are filled with outstanding men and women....of both races....who have made significant contributions toward making this nation better and better. I can only pray that Barack Hussein Obama is one of these who will bring this nation, under God, into unity of spirit.
He can't do it alone...but, yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ, he can be the greatest catalyst this nation has ever known. But, first of all, there has to be a dynamic ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT in this nation.

God is color-blind. And He loves all races equally. But His Word to all humanity is: "Be ye holy, as I am holy." We've got a long way to go to attain that holiness (righteousness) that exalts our nation....again.