It was, I think, the poem heard ’round the world. When Amanda Gorman stepped up to the microphone at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden yesterday, the air was electric. I wept, when I got a chance to watch her recital on a rerun. She was not only eloquent in her delivery (and another public speaker who battled a speech impediment up until even the last couple of years), she was also absolutely prophetic. Casting a vision of America as it could be, as it should be.

There were so many brilliant turns of phrase in her work – the ‘just-is/justice’ bit and the ‘quiet is not always peace’ and the ‘victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we made.”

But what I loved best was that she called it brave to see the light, and to be the light. She is absolutely correct. It is brave to be kind. Brave to be generous. Brave to open your heart to love others, because an open heart can (and will) get hurt.

Jesus calls us to be brave. As He was: brave enough to teach the truth, even though it would anger his enemies to the point that they would have him betrayed, arrested, and executed; brave enough to endure pain that is beyond imagination, because bringing peace between God and humanity required sacrifice; brave enough to love those who would ultimately hurt Him; brave enough to see his mission through to it’s bitter end because that end was only a beginning, after all.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, I encourage you to be brave, to see the light and to be the light.

(And of course, here is a link to Amanda Gorman reciting her poem because it bears watching again and again!)