I just finished reading the book, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride. I loved this book, and the fact that it is a true story made me love it even more. I wanted to share one of my favorite parts with you.
. . . even as a boy I knew God was all-powerful because of Mommy's utter deference to Him, and also because she would occasionally do something in church that I never saw her do at home or anywhere else: at some point in the service, usually when the congregation was singing one of her favorite songs, like "We've Come This Far by Faith" or "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," she would bow down her head and weep. It was the only time I ever saw her cry. 'Why do you cry in church?' I asked her one afternoon after service.
"Because God makes me happy."
"Then why cry?"
"I'm crying 'cause I'm happy. Anything wrong with that?"
"No," I said, but there was, because happy people did not seem to cry like she did. Mommy's tears seemed to come from somewhere else, a place far away, a place inside her that she never let any of us children visit, and even as a boy I felt there was a pain behind them. I thought it was because she wanted to be black like everyone else in church, because maybe God liked black people better, and one afternoon on the way home from church I asked her whether God was black or white.
A deep sigh. "Oh boy . . . God's not black. He's not white. He's a spirit."
"Does he like black or white people better?"
"He loves all people. He's a spirit."
"What's a spirit?"
"A spirit's a spirit."
"What color is God's spirit?"
"It doesn't have a color," she said. "God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color."
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This novel tells the story of a young man who struggles to come to grips with his heritage and his racial backgroud. Throughout the novel his mother tells her story of her life and how she learned to live with her racial backround herself. Together they overcome many obsticals and help eachother through different beliefs and life changing decisions. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons, the racial backround, historical backround, and most of all the mother son relationship that I as the reader was constantly reminded of. Both charaters became so close and dependent on eachother.
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