5. Visible Step

You can't be what you can't see.

Vision plays a vital role in taking steps towards justice. Proverbs says without a vision, people perish. Without a vision, there is no hope for the future or picture of what life can be. So much of what we know and learn in life is caught, not just taught. Our children are like sponges. They watch and mimic what they see from us. Generations of injustice are perpetuated because generations of young people grow up without having a visible picture of God's plan for marriage, family, faith, work, and so much more. Imagine trying to become something you've never seen before.

God understood the power of vision and sent Jesus to be the picture for us. It's the life of Jesus that brought the law of God into practical understanding. Without Jesus, the people of God had no image of God. Jesus' words impacted the disciples, but his ways changed them forever and gave them a model to follow when he went to heaven.

Our presence with others fighting for justice helps paint a picture of who Jesus is to a world looking for justice. Before my grandma passed, she would tell me how the children in our church asked to live with her. She was an older, white woman, and they were young African American children who seemed to have nothing in common. Except she would give them gum if they listened to the talk. They grew to love her. They had never seen grandparents, children, and grandchildren together, living in harmony. They grew up with several dads and siblings living in different houses. Can you imagine what many of them will reproduce years later? Some of those same children would ask my wife if I was her 'baby daddy.' We would explain that we were married and that I was her husband. It was a foreign language to them.

We can't be what we don't see!

Sometimes, it's not what we do that matters the most; it's just the fact that we are present. Our presence has the power to make a difference in our journey toward justice! Our presence represents the presence of Jesus in our world.

Where can your presence have the most impact on justice?

Prayer: Jesus, would your presence abide in me as I abide in the world. Use my presence in the lives of other people. Amen.