I am Confused. Perplexed. I am unable to comprehend the state of race relations in our country at this moment in time. I can’t help but think back to seventh grade, the first year of forced busing where I grew up in Florida. In my reversion story I confess that I was an

extreme introvert. Blissfully unaware, lost in my own imaginings, awash in my daydreams. I had virtually no clue of the unrest in our country at the time.

By luck of the draw, meaning, where the government drew the dividing lines for who were bused, I was able to stay at my local public school. Other kids, black and white who were not so lucky, were uprooted from their neighborhoods and bused to different public schools all over town. This unrest came to my school in the form of fights between the races virtually every school day. I was then, like now, confused. At that point in my life having grown up in the Catholic Church, I was taught that we were all children of God. Made in His image and likeness. So, if that were true, I thought, why is there so much fighting going on among ourselves? Then like now, why are we putting so much emphasis on the color of ones skin.

While thinking upon this situation, one day a glimmer of light emerged from my confusion. If we truly are made in the image and likeness of God, and I believe that we are, then that means we are all, every one of us, the color of God. And that would mean that we are all one race. The human race. Children of God.

I offer three suggestions for seeing each and everyone of us as the color of God.

Turn to God. I believe we all are seeking God. We just don’t always realize it. Fear often keeps us at a distance from God, as well as being duped by societal seductions that can be disguised in the form of people, status and things. I have found that seeking God is the most important aspect of my life. Go to Mass. God is love. Seek God’s love.

Look within. How does that song go? “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” When I was at the lowest point in my life spiritually, I was an angry man but had not a clue. Everyone else was to blame for my issues, not me. I wanted everyone else to change. When it slowly dawned on me that I and I alone was to blame for my dissatisfaction in me and my surroundings, that was a very frightening moment. I realized that I had to change. More importantly, I had to be that change.  As Viktor Frankl, holocaust survivor and psychiatrist states in his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Love one another. We are here on earth such a short while, why waste our precious time with hate, jealousy and fear. Let us love, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “to love is to will the good of another.” It is not so much an ushy gushy love or a conditional love, but a love that desires only what is best for another, unconditionally. No strings attached.

I know there are a number of issues at play in this current unrest, but at the heart of it all, it really all comes down to one thing. We, all of us are, the color of God.