People admire Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for a variety of good reasons. He pursued a vital cause and was a virtuous man in many respects.

However, at this time when we remember his birth and honor his life each year, I find it most fitting to focus on the hope he had. His hope stood on the true freedom that we must find for our souls if we are to really grasp and live out his dream with our actions, through eyes now lined with love.

It was in God’s love and light. It was in forgiveness and honesty and openness.

This hope can only live in a heart that’s been touched by Heaven. And it is a hope that lives on long after the one who preached it has flown back home.

For the hope that we would live in peace with each other is bigger than only one person. (We are simply thankful and in awe when we see that hope lived out in a single life so faithfully and fearlessly.)

In Dr. King’s honor, I have written this short poem called Free at Last:

Behold the dream–

Spoken of iconically, pressed for consistently.

Bigger than a single man,

Spilling over the start-end boundaries of

Measurable time.

Deeper than a colored theme,

For our skin is only our surface. Changing light

Must pierce deeper

To transform the heart. He knew

The greatest victories are not won

With bullets and blades

But with

Hope

That while we live and breathe

We can choose

To live his dream.

When God’s goodness corrects

Our vision.