Unity Brown Beason

Unity Brown Beason
1834-1910
(my 1/2 Cherokee great, great, great, grandmother)

"I urge you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:1-6)

We are one in the Spirit

We are one in the Lord.

We are one in the Spirit

 We are one in the Lord,

And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

And they'll know we are Christians 

By our love, by our love,

Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

We will work with each other,

We will work side by side.

We will work with each other

And together we'll spread the News

That God is in our land.

And they'll know we are Christians 
By our love, by our love
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

This 1966 hymn, "We are One in the Spirit," by Peter Scholte kicked off last weekend's Recreate Women's Conference with the theme: One in Christ. 

On Sunday, after attending the conference with my daughters-in-law, I had a lovely visit with a beloved cousin that I had not seen in a month of Sundays. He gave me a portrait of our great, great, great grandmother, Unity Brown Beason, who was half Cherokee Native American. 

How significant that her parents—David Brown and Susan Battles Brown (whom we assume was full-blooded Cherokee)—named their daughter Unity, symbolic of the union between two people groups: the Anglo-Saxons and the Native North Americans.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul taught that harmony in Christ's body is God's purpose. Christ's body is One Body comprised of many congregations from many different people groups. Thus Christians should live according to God's purpose and strive to maintain unity. 

Beloved, some of us like the old hymns; some like the new praise choruses. Some of us are old; some of us are young. Some of us wear make-up; some of us don't. Some of us are Democrats; some of us are Republicans. Yet, red, brown, yellow, black, or white, we are precious in God's sight, and we must make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of love and peace. Amen? 

Amen!