Daily Lesson for November 11, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 14 through 17:

14 And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths.

In the hallway in our house where all our family photos hang, there's a black and white picture of nine young black women sitting in and leaning on an old 1930s-looking convertible.  Some are seated inside the cars while others sit or stand on the running boards. They are each smartly and respectably clothed with dress and heals on. In the background of the photo tall pines rise over the women and a stately brick building with a vaulted gate can just be seen. These are college women -- black college women from the late 30s or 40s.  One is Irie's great aunt. And the picture is there to remind our family of the day when a college education for a black woman was really something rare and struggled after.  It's there to remind our family where and who it comes from and who it owes.

The Jews were given something similar in today's Lesson. The Book of the Law directed them to set aside a special festival called the Festival of Booth, and all during the festival they were to make little huts and tents and sleep in them. They began this tradition as they began building their Second Temple; but the festival was to remind them of a time when their people had no Temple, but were nomads wandering in the wilderness living in tents and booths.  The Festival of Booths kept them in touch with where their people had been and just how far they'd come.

There's a great black church hymn sung with the words of James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing":

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We are where we are today because of the struggles of those who came before us and we need to hold on to something -- a photo or a booth or something -- to remind us where and who we come from.