Let Mandela’s light continue to lead our collective way
How do you measure greatness?
EDITOR – How do you measure greatness?
Like the way the seedling breaks its way through concrete and sees God’s light for the first time.
God put into a lonesome hut in the hamlet of Qunu, the seed of a man, one man to stand against an apartheid empire.
He fulfilled his duties as a herd boy, innocent of the fate of his people and the obstacles he would have to face in his journey through life. He went among his brethren and looked upon their suffering and must have thought, “why do we suffer, we are not animals”. His tormented mind, driven by determination to free his people set his feet upon a path. A path that would see him jailed for 27 years.
Each new day would bring hope, hope to quench the thirst for freedom. As the day unfolded, hope would be dashed by the hard labour of breaking rocks and the resultant gnarled hands. And there came a day, after 27 years, he was a free man. In his heart would be the burning desire to seek revenge, but like the seedling, he could see God’s light, for he could see His whole purpose. The light of God burned brighter than the desire for revenge. The whole world watched with bated breath as he negotiated the freedom of his people into a rainbow nation, and they called it a miracle. A man who once sat in a desolate, claustrophobic cell now walked with prime ministers, presidents and kings. His radiance of that refracted ray of light has shone on everyone of us. His death should not extinguish it but each one of us should carry this light to eternity.
