This year I am going to tell you a story. It is a very long story but deserving. I am going to add some color to history. Many of these stories you know, you might have put them all together. Allow me to.

People of African descent have always been here. Racism tries to make us believe that Africans were not smart enough to leave the continent until a European or Asian showed them how. Not true.

Simon was from a city in Northern Africa in Libya. It was settled during the time of Greek reign. It was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region.

The first story I share goes back to 33AD where a Jew name Jesus is carrying the weapon of his destruction down a road. Beaten and exhausted, Jesus needs help, so they get a man who is fresh in from the country, a man from Cyrene. This man is from a Greek city on the continent of Africa. He used his two feet to get from one place to another.

Something about this man made him stand out from the crowd of people following Jesus. Something obviously physical because they thought he would be able to bear the burden. Here is the beautiful thing, God knew he would be able to carry it. Simon’s two feet and strong back carried the cross.

I don’t know if Simon was on a trade route or maybe he was visiting Jerusalem as a practicing Jew, but he was far from home. He was bigger and stronger than any in the crowd. His sandaled feet followed the path God had him on. It changed everything for his family.

God wrote us into this story. People from Africa were there. We weren’t standing on the sidelines. We had a role to play.

Where we came from didn’t limit where we were going. It never has.

In 2022, I am going to add some color to history.