Honouring Madiba

     

     This week the world is mourning the loss of a champion for human dignity and freedom — Nelson Mandela. 

     A remarkable South African, Mandela is being honoured world-wide, for leading his people to freedom, ending the apartheid rule of the white minority regime. It would be difficult to find anyone, anywhere, at anytime whose life would match his. 
     Twenty-seven years in prison, enduring solitary confinement and hard labour, he emerges with this forgiving spirit saying, 
     "There's nothing to be gained by retribution. I'm just interested in building a better country for all its citizens." 

     

George H.W. Bush

     Becoming their president, he sought not revenge, but racial peace for both blacks and whites. As former president, George H. W. Bush said, 
     "I watched in wonder as Mandela had the remarkable capacity to forgive his jailers, following years of wrongful imprisonment, setting a powerful example of redemption and grace for us all."  
     He obviously had made peace with himself and peace with the horror of what he went through, deciding that "hatred corrodes the container it's carried in." 

          We all could learn much from this man's attitude as he further stated, 
     "Resentment is like drinking poison, and then hoping it will kill your enemies." He also stated, "A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dream of." 

WATCH: The most touching Mandela tribute came from the least expected place

     
    I've heard that during his years in prison, with just bread and water for breakfast, he would lift the bread to God and say, "I receive this in remembrance of your body, Lord Jesus, and with the water, I receive this in remembrance of your blood." 
     

     We know little of this man's prayer life, but something or someone kept his mind steady and at peace during those long solitary years. 

     

CLICK TO READ,  New York Times story: Mandela'a Body Arrives in Home Province for Funeral Amid Cheers 

     Could Mandela's deep and mainly private relationship with God have been the secret of his amazing strength of character?  You decide!

— beulah