On Wednesday, my family and I watched something that Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) called both commonplace and miraculous: the peaceful transition of power from one White House administration to another. “Commonplace,” Sen. Blunt reminded us, “because we have done it every four years since 1789, miraculous, because we have done it every four years since 1789.”
There was a great deal in the Presidential Inauguration that I found remarkable and uplifting. Garth Brooks enthusiastically running around the dais to hug all the Presidents (unfortunately without his mask, but that’s another story), was certainly memorable. But among the touching moments of the inauguration, none was more stunning than the Inaugural Poet, Amanda Gorman, reading her juggernaut of a poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
Gorman’s poem is a sermon, in the best sense of the word, filled with Good News, or at least hinting at Good News, with allusions to Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Maya Angleou and the musical Hamilton. It soars with the lyricism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the simple elegance of Mary Oliver. Gorman’s vision is profoundly American. It is just as profoundly Christian. Because the vision of God’s Kingdom is always ahead of us, toward a future bigger than the past, as Gorman wrote:
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
I could go on, but I won’t. Better for you to attend to the poem yourself. Let me invite you to listen to Ms. Gorman’s performance, which was simply stunning, in the video above. If you prefer, you can find the text of the poem in many places, including here. Take some time to absorb the powerful words of this remarkable poet. Consider them in a spirit of prayer, weigh them in your heart, and let them move you to be brave enough to see the light, brave enough to be it.