(RNS) — When visiting his maternal grandmother’s house in Florida, the Rev. William Lamar IV remembered feeling “frightened” when he stared at the picture of a great-aunt hung up prominently on the wall.
It wasn’t until his grandmother explained what the portrait represented that he began appreciating it.
“This picture of Aunt Viney is the first ancestor that reached out for me beyond time and space, to teach me something about who I was, biologically and genetically,” Lamar said in a recent interview with Religion News Service. “But also to teach me about what kind of human being I was supposed to be.”…