Running the Race

Even before my daughter was born, I felt God tell me to always emphasize to her she was His daughter...that this must be a foundational piece in her identity. My daughter is biracial. I am White and her father is African American or “brown” as she says.

I remember when my daughter was about three and her alerting her father that he had a different skin tone. We were at dinner and had just ordered dinner when she turned to her father and said, “you know daddy – you are black!” A few months later, I had gotten pulled over by the police for speeding. As the African American police officer walked up to the car, from the back seat you hear this little voice," Daddy is that your brother?" We laughed so hard we cried and it made it a bit easier to receive my consequence for speeding.

When she was four she told me that when she grew up she wanted to be white. This was not funny to me...I cried for a different reason. This made me really question what I was teaching her and modeling for her.

Part of what I believe was going on...was she just wanted to look like someone in her family...wanting to feel connected visually. She was trying to figure out her place in her family and community. I could relate to this because I was adopted and I felt like no one “really” looked like me in my family. Years later I saw a picture of my half sister and she looked just like me…this buzz carried me for days….someone looked just like me...amazing!

What is the point of all of this? I am not sure I really know...yet. I do feel this is part of our race and we will run together. Although looking at us we do not visually look alike...we are connected by blood but also through relationship and we have the same King - our Heavenly Father. Our relationship has deep roots because we both derive our identity from being God's daughter.