God Walks With Us

On Sunday,September 15, 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, members of the Ku Klux Klan placed a box of dynamite underneath steps of the church, near the basement, of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. About 10:22 a.m., twenty-six children were walking into the basement for Sunday School, when the dynamite exploded killing four girls ages 11 to 14.

At the funeral, in his Eulogy for the Martyred Children sermon, Dr. Martin Luther King said...

"...life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace."

You are strong when I am weak

You are the answer that I seek

When life is hard and times are bleak

You are my Savior

You lift me up when I am down

And set me on my feet again

You ransomed me to higher ground

You are my Savior

Like a ship out on the sea

Tossed about endlessly

When all was lost you came along

And rescued me

You are strong when I am weak

You are the answer that I seek

When life is hard and times are bleak

You are my Savior

*Photo from the Newport Beach Independent, by Jim Collins, 2010.