Over time we can erode hate and division
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: By the Rev David Macartney, North Coast Parish, Church of Scotland
The US Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recited her poem “The hill we climb” at President Joe Biden's inauguration, and I found myself moved.
“Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true, that even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped.
"That even as we tired, we tried. That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious, not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
"Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.”
She was quoting indirectly from the old testament prophet Micah 4:4. He spoke of a time when world peace was not an ideology but a way of life, a time when wars were so unheard of that the very weapons made for violence and destruction were melted down and repurposed to help grow crops and feed the people living peacefully with one another.
The world has a long way to go yet, the UN’s recent global ban on nuclear weapons was not approved by most of the countries that own these world-ending devices, but peace is always something worth striving for, and just as water erodes the toughest of rocks over time, it is not vain to hope that hatred, violence and oppression can be eroded by people showing practical support, kindness and respect to one another.
Living and working for the world instead of themselves.