Today, on the third Monday of January, we observe “Martin Luther King Jr. Day.”  It’s a federal holiday to honor this civil rights leader and to remember his significant contributions to civil rights and social justice.

Yes, I’m old enough to remember his speeches, to recall his peaceful protests.  What an inspiration he was to those of us who were young and certain that our tomorrows would be better.  “I have a dream,” he spoke, and we shared that dream.

Yet, all these many years later we have yet to fulfill this dream.  Still we wallow in the “valley of despair” where people are judged by the color of their skin, their ethnicity, and their religious beliefs.  We need to hear his words today as much as ever, to remember his message.  The following excerpts are quoted from his “I Have a Dream” speech.

“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ . .

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Yes, I too have a dream, that my children and grandchildren might also be inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. That they might also have the dream that such a nation is possible, that today’s discord need not be carried into tomorrow, that hatred and division need not rule our lives. 

This is not only the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., it is the very thing our Lord Jesus commanded of us, to “Love our neighbors as ourselves.”  Loving Lord, guide our thoughts and actions that we may step confidently in this direction.   Lord direct our lives so that we may move to make this dream a reality.  Lord we are weak, give us your strength. 

Judy