She looked at each of us, smiling with glistening eyes. “I understood then. I understood what Mammy tried to teach me about God and his goodness in spite of us being slaves. I understood that the masters who beat me and sold me weren’t anything like God the Father. They was sinners, just like me. I understood that bad things are gonna happen in this world and that we’ll all walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But I needn’t live in fear anymore. The things I endured in my pitiful life as a slave didn’t mean God isn’t good or that he don’t love us.”
