“What consolation is there in the death of George Floyd?”
“What consolation is there in the death of George Floyd?” This is my paraphrase of the question I heard a friend give during our meeting for worship.
The friend had been involved in civil rights demonstrations in the US in 1967 and now 53 years on they were struggling with the death of George Floyd by state forces. It was his cry for his mother that touched them deeply. That in the last moments of his death he wanted everything that his mother had afforded him. Many of us understand that when we are stripped bare at the core we are a child of the earth seeking protection from the one who carried us and gave birth to us.
One of the reasons I meet with others in silence and to honour ‘that of God’ in each of us is that I am not alone as I need to be connected to others so that together we grow. It is as if as we assemble that we create a collective mind whereby in listening to the silence I am becoming one with the others present and receptive to what we may hear.
As one speaks their words echo in my soul and I may then hear an answer.
The answer I heard was, ‘Death is not the end’. If we take Jesus as a man his death was not the end as it inspired countless others and so in the death of George Floyd, he too became the sacrifice for many giving his life that others may live.
Best day,
g
