I am Human

I am human and I am free
Watch me fly above the trees
You can hear my cry and you can hear my roar
but you can’t take away my soul

We’ll fight and we’ll cry and we’ll even abide
We’ll say goodbye just to stay alive
And the day will come to have dignity again

Last week, I went on a trip with Encounter to East Jerusalem. I saw checkpoints, military, refugee camps and neighborhoods that look very different from my own. Later, I sat and I listened to Palestinians tell their stories and speak about their realities of living in Jerusalem. I listened to their stories and I listened to their pain and my heart broke as each of them told a room full of Jews what it is like to be Palestinian in Jerusalem.

As I listened, they became my mothers, my sisters, my son and my brother, I could see myself in each one of them. We must strive to always see each other as created in the image of God, because when we do, we treat each other with love, dignity and respect. As the day was ending the words of one speaker, a teenager, was in my head, he said “I am a human…” those words stayed with me the rest of the day and I came home and wrote this song.