"THE BLACK SEED"

By Marlon Bryant

I have a question:

Do you know your history? It’s funny how deception can seem like a kiss to me. Tell me, how much of our history is told in the history books? The true crime was not that we had our history took, but that the Bible says something different than America’s book.

The enemies of God used misguided souls to uproot us from our motherland. The black seed was aggressively thrown into dry and parched soil, and yet we still survived. We embraced the harsh and painful winds of slavery, and we still survived. The emancipation proclamation gave the black seed the freedom to hunger and poverty with no economic floor, and we still survived. We shed sacred blood on the hard concrete of Selma Bridge, and we still survived. Some of our leaders were cut down with an evil sword, but we still survived. They tried to bury the black seed, and unaware of its anointing, we grew.

Oh, but if they knew, we are not weak because we are few. If only they knew that we are the salt of the earth, too! If only they knew, that though our history is bruised and battered, there is more to our story. Not only did we grow, but we changed the soil around us, too. We prayed for those who oppressed us and blessed those who cursed us, and we’ve kept the faith through it all. And so from that black seed, we became the trees that give shade to those who pay us no mind and still take our fruit.

Even today, they tear at our roots, but they cannot remove what God has planted.

For we were not just slaves,

But we are the seed of Abraham,

We are the lineage of Jesus the Christ,

We are bound by His reckless love,

The complexion of our skin is a wonderful shade of his artistry,

The unique sound of our praise is the highest expression of our personality,

He is with us, even when it doesn’t feel like it,

When the world tries to ignore us, he sees us,

When we hurt, He carries our tears,

He recognizes us,

He made us,

We are not chained by this skin,

For we are in it but we are not of it,

There will be a day, that this skin will fade away,

And the word of the living God will remain,

There will be a day, that the black seed will have served its purpose,

And it will return to the dust that it was drawn from,

And on that day, the black seed will have found rest in the only place that can give it,

My friends, I encourage you to rest in Jesus today,

Do not be bound by the lies this world says about you,

You are black and beautiful, but more importantly,

God is good.