He is Keeping Us

He is keeping us.

Abuse has been our nemesis, pain, suffering and death its by product.

Commerce is one of the reasons for such sin.

Young men stolen from East Africa, mutilated to be Eunuchs for Arabian harems.

Some didn’t survive the alterations, but that was okay.

Supply chains never ran dry, continually producing more unwilling sacrifices for the mishaps done in butchery.

Twelve hundred years of misery. Seven hundred before the middle passage.

Africa’s people are still here, young, and vibrant, poised for the future.

He is keeping us.

Then, the middle passage. The New world was our destiny.

Not for leisure, but for more pain and suffering. 

More forced, uncompensated labor for the skills and knowledge we possessed.

Skills that built empires, libraries, edifices that still stand.

Knowledge of agriculture from centuries past. Skills used in the new world.

Skills learned by our captures and claimed as their own.

Skills that weren’t barter for anything we could call our own.

He is keeping us.

Through the ages we have survived and thrived.

The ability to create grandly in Tulsa still runs in our veins.

The call is always there.

But the distractions that sidetrack us are there, too.

Our DNA is strong, admired. The products of its creativity have influenced the world.

Where would Western civilization be without it.

He kept us, and he’s keeping us now.

His love is our most precious commodity. I’m old and blessed…hope you will be too.